Novartis Trials Patients Know Best

Pharmaceutical firm Novartis is to begin a post-market trial using the online patient-controlled personal health records service supplied by Patients Know Best. Post-market trials are conducted for drugs that have passed initial toxicity and effectiveness tests and received some regulatory approval. They are intended to gather additional information about safety and efficicy and optimal use.

The trial is a significant development for Patients Know Best, which is already in use at several NHS trusts, including Great Ormond Street, University College London and South Devon. The Novartis-sponsored trial will cover patients living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in five practices linked to a London hospital.

Patients will use the Patients Know Best personal health record to record details of their condition, their treatment and how they feel, which will be analysed for context and meaning. Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, chief executive and founder of Patients Know Best, told eHealth Insider that data recorded by patients will be analysed using newly incorporated congnitive analysis software. “This will enable us to extract the story the patient is telling us.”