Castor collaborates with Microsoft to bring Practical AI to clinical trials.

February 8th, 2024 by

NEW YORK, N.Y. – February 8, 2024 – Today, Castor announced its collaboration with Microsoft to use Microsoft Azure to bring modern artificial intelligence (AI) to clinical trials. Offering a modular, patient-centric clinical trial platform, Castor is focused on developing technology that reduces burden for patients, sponsors, and study teams. 

As a part of this announcement, the company is releasing its first in a line of Practical AI features to all its users in public Beta. 

“We see an opportunity for AI and automation to significantly reduce the burden of day-to-day clinical trial activities for site staff, clinical research associates and data managers. On the patient side, we envision Large Language Models (LLMs) helping with patient education and real-time support” said Dr. Derk Arts, MD PhD, CEO & Founder of Castor. “Our work with Microsoft Azure is a critical step to bring these practical capabilities to production in a secure and responsible manner.”

Over the last 18 months, Castor has advanced an AI roadmap in collaboration with Microsoft using Azure. The Beta release of Castor’s first Practical AI feature will be available to the company’s 147,000+ users. The feature will help Castor users develop their studies faster by simplifying complex tasks in the study build process. In November 2023, Castor demonstrated the potential future-state of its Practical AI with an AI Demo at CNS Summit. The company won the Award for best AI Demo out of 30 applicants. The award was handed out by judges Junaid Bajwa (Chief Medical Scientist – Microsoft) and MaryAnne Rizk (Board member – Netramark). 

“Castor’s vision is to create a future where all data contributes directly to discovering cures to the world’s diseases.  Microsoft is pleased to support this vision by providing an industry-leading data and AI platform that is being used by Castor as they work to improve the clinical trial process.” Junaid Bajwa – Chief Medical Scientist of Microsoft Research.

Castor chose Azure to launch its AI solutions because Azure offers an enterprise-grade environment for developing and deploying cutting-edge capabilities, ensuring any data used for training is secure, and production deployments are monitored and reliable. 

“Large Language Models (LLMs) can help improve patient education and support, aiding in the optimization of study participant retention,” said Dr. Arts. “The essence of AI is not just about automating tasks, it’s letting humans be human. By reducing repetitive and time-consuming tasks, we give back precious time to our users; time that can be spent focusing on patients and participants. That is the real promise, the practical promise of AI.” 

Castor EDC, ePRO, eConsent

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform for decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, Castor’s modular platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment, eConsent, ePRO and real-world data capture. 

Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to analysis, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide. 

For more information, follow us on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/castoredc

https://www.linkedin.com/in/derkarts/

Contact
Laura McLoughlin
Castor
[email protected]

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Castor announces Frans van Houten, former CEO of Philips, as the company’s new chairman of its Board Of Directors

August 21st, 2023 by

NEW YORK, N.Y. – August 21, 2023 – Castor, an industry leader in modular, patient-centric, clinical trial technology, today announced the appointment of Frans van Houten as the new Chairman of its Board of Directors. His exceptional leadership experience and extensive industry knowledge in the healthcare and technology industries will be invaluable to Castor as the company continues to pursue its mission to make patient-centric trials possible for everyone, anywhere in the world.

Frans van Houten, recognized worldwide for his tenure as CEO of Philips, contributes a proven track record in business transformation, and technology innovation. During his tenure at Philips, he was responsible for transforming the organization from a diversified conglomerate into a focused health technology solutions company. Aside from his role at Castor, van Houten also serves on the Board of Directors of Novartis, a leading global pharmaceutical company, and acts as a key advisor to private equity companies. 

“Efficient clinical trials produce quality data that need to be collected through effective engagement with patients, processed and aggregated, all responsibly in compliance with regulatory requirements,” said van Houten. “I have long shared Castor’s belief that clinical trial cloud technology can do a better job in helping pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies scale and expedite timelines with more data accessibility. By combining clinical trial expertise with modern SAAS technology, we will be able to fix traditionally stodgy clinical trial processes to increase operational efficiencies and reduce human effort at every stage in the clinical trial journey.” 

“Being able to work with a renowned captain of industry and thought leader such as Frans is a true privilege. I am excited to work with him to ensure Castor stays ahead of our peers with regards to innovation and growth.”  said Derk Arts, MD, PhD, CEO and Founder of Castor. “His expansive expertise in the life science and healthcare informatics industries will not only accelerate our growth as we partner with enterprise pharma, but also ensure we effectively navigate these times of drastic change with the advent of AI in clinical research.”

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform for decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, Castor’s plug-and-play platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment, consent, and real-world data capture. 

Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to analysis, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide. 

For more information, visit www.castoredc.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/castoredc

 

Contact
Laura McLoughlin
Castor
[email protected]

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Castor welcomes Jeanne Hecht to Board of Directors

July 3rd, 2023 by

NEW YORK, N.Y. – July 5, 2023 – Castor, an industry leader in modular, patient-centric, clinical trial technology, today announced the appointment of Jeanne Hecht to its Board of Directors. She will contribute extensive experience and strategic insights to support Castor’s mission of making patient-centric trials possible for everyone, anywhere in the world.

“The clinical trial landscape requires collaboration among key stakeholders,” said Hecht. “To support the every changing needs of life science stakeholders including pharmaceutical companies, regulators, and research sites, innovation must occur. Castor’s modular platform is built to make clinical trials of varying size or complexity possible for everyone. I am eager to contribute my expertise and become a part of the company’s journey to make patient-centric trials possible for everyone, anywhere in the world.”

Jeanne Hecht, a Global Business Executive in the clinical research industry, has 25+ years of experience leading successful teams across mature and emerging markets within the product development, pharma services and life sciences space. Before joining Castor, she held multiple key roles at renowned life science organizations namely IQVIA, Median Technologies, and Ora where she held various executive leadership roles responsible for leading and implementing the companies’ global strategy. Her significant expertise in driving businesses will help Castor achieve breakthrough growth in key segments. 

“At Castor, we are breaking down silos and making it easier for everyone who is involved in the clinical trial processes,” said Derk Arts, MD, PhD, CEO and Founder of Castor. “Jeanne’s insights and enthusiasm for strategic business development combined with the collective experience of our leadership team and Board, will help facilitate collaboration and further our product positioning in the market.”

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform for decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, Castor’s plug-and-play platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment, consent, and real-world data capture. 

Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to analysis, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide. 

For more information, visit www.castoredc.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/castoredc

Contact
Laura McLoughlin
Castor
[email protected]

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Castor announces appointment of Brad Hightower, leading clinical trials executive, to its advisory board

February 1st, 2023 by

NEW YORK, N.Y. – February 1, 2023 – Castor, a leading provider of clinical trial technology to democratize clinical research, today announced the appointment of Brad Hightower, a leading clinical trials executive, to its advisory board.

Brad brings more than 10 years of experience in clinical research, as the former Executive Director of the Oklahoma Heart Hospital Research Foundation. He founded Hightower Clinical, a research network that offers services that support researchers and patients to access trials easily.

“I am excited to join Castor’s Advisory Board,” said Brad Hightower. “I have been a fierce advocate for patients’ access and seeing little changes in how we conduct trials that truly benefit our patient population. I believe in the potential of technology to fill in this gap. Castor is bringing the right technology to connect patients and study teams.”

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform for decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, Castor’s plug-and-play platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment, consent, and real-world data capture. Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to analysis, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide.

For more information, visit www.castoredc.com. Follow Castor on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Contacts

Castor
Laura McLoughlin, [email protected]

Media
KKH Advisors
Kimberly Ha, [email protected]

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Castor Launches Real-World Evidence Offering to Simplify Post-Marketing Clinical Trials

November 10th, 2022 by

NEW YORK, N.Y. – November 1, 2022 – Castor, a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial technology solutions, today announced a new offering to simplify post-marketing clinical trials. By extending global reach, integrating real-world data (RWD), and automating trial processes, Castor’s latest offering can reduce trial costs by 30% and deployment timelines to only 4 weeks on average.

“Real-world evidence has the potential to transform evidence based medicine, by generating a body of evidence that provides a much more accurate view on what cure is best for each individual patient, through including a more diverse range of patients and in everyday settings,” said CEO and co-founder Derk Arts, M.D, Ph.D. “Our latest offering simplifies the creation of RWE into clinical trials and supports life science companies in their pursuit of drug discovery and development goals.”

Castor RWE addresses common PMCT challenges by easily integrating real-world data sources such as patient-reported outcomes and wearables to increase patient access and retention as well as data quality and compliance. The offering, Castor Real-World Evidence (RWE), provides integrated technology and services to accelerate the collection of RWD for post-marketing clinical trials (PMCT), enabling life science companies to meet regulatory and payer requirements efficiently.

The offering includes pre-configured modules for patient recruitment, eligibility screening, enrollment, data capture, and participant engagement. This comprehensive approach helps sponsors uncover valuable insights into drug performance in real-world settings, while expanding access to global trial populations.

“We are committed to supporting life science companies in all aspects of their clinical trials, from early drug discovery to post-marketing studies,” said Castor CPTO Andy Sadler.“Castor RWE is a natural extension of our platform, and we are excited to provide this solution to our clients.”

To learn more about Castor RWE visit https://www.castoredc.com/real-world-evidence/.

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform, Castor’s modular platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment and real-world data capture. Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to monitoring, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide. For more information, visit www.castoredc.com. Follow Castor on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Contacts

Castor
Dana Perotti, [email protected]

Media
KKH Advisors
Kimberly Ha, [email protected]

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Castor Expands Platform Capabilities, Releases Virtual Visit Feature to Optimize the Clinical Trial Experience for Researchers and Patients

October 31st, 2022 by

NEW YORK, N.Y. – November 1, 2022 – Castor, a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions, today announced the release of Virtual Visits, a new telemedicine feature designed to enable faster, more diverse clinical trials. Seamlessly built into the company’s modular clinical trial platform, the newest release unites data capture with face-to-face interaction by connecting with patients in the comfort of their own homes, on any device.

“We’re thrilled to add Virtual Visits to our platform,” said Derk Arts M.D, Ph.D, Castor CEO and Co-Founder. “Our goal is to make clinical trials easier for everyone involved, whether that’s a researcher managing multiple studies or a participant juggling daily life commitments. This new feature allows us to continue moving towards that goal.”

By reducing the effort, cost, and time needed, Castor Virtual Visits enhance convenience and flexibility – upgrading the patient experience while also amplifying retention rates and data reliability. With Castor, patients can remotely connect with investigators or study coordinators on any device they want, in their preferred language – giving them the power to make informed decisions about their care.

Castor Virtual Visits facilitate direct data collection, making data quality, management, and sharing easier for clinical research teams. Researchers can conduct virtual visits through Castor’s EDC module, allowing for direct data capture to happen during virtual visits. Designed to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, Castor’s secure telemedicine solution is fully compliant with regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR, ensuring patient privacy and data security.

With this expansion, Castor now has functionality for each major step of the clinical workflow. In addition to virtual visits, Castor’s modular clinical trial platform also offers patient engagement tools, electronic informed consent capabilities, and real-time data management. Together, these features streamline clinical trial workflows while improving the clinical trial experience for all stakeholders involved.

Castor continues to innovate in the clinical trial space, driving toward more efficient and accessible research. To learn more about Virtual Visits and the rest of Castor’s platform, visit www.castoredc.com.

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform, Castor’s modular platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment and real-world data capture. Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to monitoring, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide. For more information, visit www.castoredc.com. Follow Castor on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Contacts

Castor
Dana Perotti, [email protected]

Media
KKH Advisors
Kimberly Ha, [email protected]

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Castor Appoints Andrew Sadler as Chief Product & Technology Officer

September 28th, 2022 by

NEW YORK, N.Y. – September 27, 2022 – Castor, a leading provider of clinical trial technology to democratize clinical research, today announced the appointment of Andrew Sadler as Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO).

“Castor’s modular SaaS platform improves the clinical trial experience for patients, sites and sponsors, using technology to accelerate every step of the clinical trial journey,” said Derk Arts, CEO and founder of Castor. “Andrew’s appointment ensures we have the leadership in place to build the best eClinical SaaS platform while successfully serving our customers in a globally compliant way.”

As CPTO for Castor, Andrew Sadler, brings more than 25 years of experience building, growing and leading engineering teams from startups to enterprise tech companies such as Google and Oracle. In this new role, Sadler is responsible for helping Castor deliver on its vision of modernizing clinical research by continuing to expand the company’s product offering and capabilities.

“Achieving the future of clinical research will require a new generation of technology that is more open, connected, and intelligent,” said Sadler. “I am grateful to join the Castor team and lead the development of innovative solutions to make this future a reality.”

As a leading provider of clinical trial technology, Castor is well-positioned for continued growth. The company’s recent leadership appointment ensures innovations to a solid product and engineering foundation and will allow Castor to enter new markets and support all aspects of a clinical trial – from recruitment through delivery.

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform for decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, Castor’s plug-and-play platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment, consent, and real-world data capture.

Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to analysis, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide.

For more information, visit www.castoredc.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/castoredc.

Contacts

Castor
Dana Perotti, [email protected]

Media
KKH Advisors
Kimberly Ha, [email protected]

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Castor Launches CRO Partnership Program to Increase Adoption of Decentralized Clinical Trials

February 2nd, 2022 by

NEW YORK, NY — February 2, 2022 – Castor, a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions, today announced the official launch of its CRO Partnership program. Designed to support clinical research organizations (CROs), the program provides the technical capabilities, operational training and commercial resources required to successfully deliver traditional, hybrid and decentralized clinical programs for trial sponsors.

“Castor allows us to add value to our service offerings and deliver innovative technology solutions with minimal upfront investment,” said Kathleen Marshall, President and Founder of MAXIS LLC. “As a partner, we’ve been able to reduce time spent building and managing studies, streamline data collection, increase access and reduce the burden on sites and patients.”

The success of clinical trials relies heavily on the eClinical solutions that support them, making it imperative to implement a flexible, technology-enabled approach. Castor’s modular eClinical platform with self-service functionality is lightweight, easy to use, easy to deploy and easily integrated with established systems. Castor’s out-of-the-box solutions reduce the number of tools needed to execute a clinical trial while also minimizing the need for add-on services when designing proposals for sponsors. As a Castor partner, CROs can deliver studies of varying complexity for more sponsors, with the necessary flexibility and speed to quickly adapt, without disrupted timelines or expanded budgets.

“We look forward to launching our CRO partnership program, as our platform offers unprecedented scalability, enabling our CRO partners to run patient centric trials as their core business, instead of in a pilot setting,” said Derk Arts, CEO & Founder, Castor. “Decentralized clinical trials offer increased patient engagement, convenience, shorter trial times, and allows for a more diverse representation of patients in studies compared to conventional trials.”

Further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, regulators and trial sponsors emphasize the need for faster, more accessible clinical trials to improve data quality and equitable health outcomes. According to a recent industry survey, an estimated 50% of clinical trials will be hybrid or decentralized by 2024. Castor’s modular DCT platform with integrated EDC allows CROs to streamline traditional approaches and offers a pathway to manage hybrid and DCTs successfully. With increased access to Castor’s professional services team and named customer success manager (CSM), CRO partners receive the technical guidance and operational support to successfully scale their DCT capabilities using a modern, easy-to-learn platform.

“We understand the unique needs of CROs from sales to operations and beyond. We’ve been there as researchers ourselves, and we know when it comes to technology, what works today may not be what is needed tomorrow,” said Andy Lipetz, Senior Director of CRO Partnerships at Castor. “That’s why we built a program dedicated to supporting cross-functional CRO teams and ensuring their success – no matter what.”

Learn more about Castor’s CRO Partnership program here.

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform for decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, Castor’s plug-and-play platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment, eConsent, and real-world data capture. Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to analysis, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide. For more information, visit www.castoredc.com. Follow us on Twitter at @castor.

Contacts

Castor
Dana Perotti, [email protected]

Media
KKH Advisors
Kimberly Ha, [email protected]

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Castor Leads Next-Gen Clinical Trials that Support Digital Therapeutics

August 18th, 2021 by

– Castor is supporting the next generation of digital therapeutics that can improve patient lives with
disease-modifying potential.
– Castor has worked with more than 30 DTx companies.


HOBOKEN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Castor, a leading provider of clinical trial technology to democratize clinical research, announced that it is powering the next generation of clinical trials with more than 30 digital therapeutics (DTx) studies ongoing. A new class of therapeutics is rapidly advancing medicine: digital therapeutics or “DTx”. These digital treatments have disease-modifying properties that are effective for a wide range of debilitating and deadly diseases.

Castor is supporting this fast-growing segment in clinical trials, as DTx is expected to have continued exponential growth with a CAGR of 30%, according to a recent industry report. Castor helps DTx companies overcome many of the unique challenges they face in clinical trials, from recruitment, screening, and informed consent to data capture – while integrating sensor and app data seamlessly through an open API.


MedRhythms, a digital therapeutics company based in Portland, Maine, uses sensors, music, and software to build evidence-based, neurologic interventions to measure and improve walking. Intended to be a rehabilitative device for walking improvement, MedRhythms’ first product intends to serve chronic stroke patients with walking difficulties and seeks to improve the speed and quality of walking. MedRhythms selected Castor as their Clinical Data Platform, citing Castor’s transparency with cost predictions, user-friendliness, and the ability to try a full version of Castor
before buying.

“Castor’s solutions were easy to navigate and intuitive to use, which is why we were interested in working with them,” said MedRhythms CEO & Founder, Brian Harris. “They were able to accommodate the amount of data from our multi-site randomized controlled trial and our sites have expressed how much they have enjoyed using Castor as well.”

For MedRhythms, even monitoring, often one of the most cumbersome trial activities, turned into a seamless process since sites quickly grasped Castor’s user interface. With Castor, study teams found it easy to log in, add a participant and randomize with Castor’s built-in randomization tool.

“Castor is powering the future of medicine, a new category of prescription digital therapeutics at the forefront of revolutionizing healthcare,” said Derk Arts, Ph.D., M.D., CEO & Founder, Castor. “Healthcare is slowly moving away from traditional therapies or a physical medical device, and instead adopting software as a medical device (SaMD). This shift changes everything about how we need to approach a novel clinical study in digital therapeutics. We look forward to powering additional studies with Castor’s DCT and Hybrid Trial platform to advance the field of digital medicine.”

Register for DTx East on September 28th to hear how Castor is “Reshaping the Future of Clinical Trials for Digital Therapeutics.”

About Castor

Castor is a leading provider of decentralized and hybrid clinical trial solutions to democratize research. With the highest-rated eClinical platform for decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, Castor’s plug-and-play platform offers rapid deployment at scale, enabling researchers to create a trial in a matter of clicks, with easy enrollment, consent, and real-world data capture. Castor is bringing human-centered design to the clinical trial process, from recruitment to analysis, and improving the quality, security, and reusability of data for researchers worldwide. For more information, visit www.castoredc.com. Follow us on Twitter at @castor.


Contacts
Media
Kimberly Ha
KKH Advisors
[email protected]

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