In clinical trials, every day lost is a patient unserved and a budget eroded. But while innovation is booming on paper, in practice, the default response is often the same: let’s wait.
That mindset is costing the industry more than we care to admit.
For an industry built on urgency (saving lives, testing breakthroughs, meeting global health challenges) clinical trials can be astonishingly slow to change.
Not just in how we recruit or monitor patients. But in how we write, communicate, collaborate, and decide. And in how workflows and processes do not change.
Let’s Review in Six Months
From decentralized trials to plain-language protocols, from AI assistance to real-time site enablement, the tools are here. The use cases are clear.
And yet across the sector, we’re still hearing the same thing:
“We don’t have time for that right now.”
“We’re waiting to see what the regulators say.”
“We’re already too busy.”
Wait and see. While that hesitation feels safe, it also comes at a price. An increasingly high one.
What Delay Really Costs
Per a study by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, the average time between protocol approval and the first patient visit increased by 45% between 2015 and 2021, leading to significant delays in product launches and return on investment. Multiply that by the average daily cost of a trial and the figures reach millions of dollars.
We are not going to pile up numbers, just focus on the core of these issues:
Those aren’t software problems.
They’re decision-making problems.
They’re communication problems.
They’re status quo problems.
Not adopting an innovation doesn’t freeze your costs in place. It just locks in inefficiency.
Inaction Has a Budget Line…
… You just don’t see it.
Here’s what doing nothing typically looks like across the trial ecosystem:
Symptom | What It Really Means |
Sites still emailing Word docs | Lost time, missing version control, compliance risk |
Study teams scrambling for summaries | Manual rework, inconsistent messaging, slower ethics |
CROs losing bids due to “faster rivals” | Time-to-content and start-up delays ruin competitiveness |
Sponsors confused by trial materials | Translation delays, poorly written summaries, mistrust |
“We’re too busy to trial anything new” | Self-fulfilling bottleneck. Busyness = stagnation. |
The tragic irony? The very teams struggling to keep up are often the ones who could benefit most from rethinking their workflows.
Fear of Change ≠ Absence of Cost
The clinical trials sector has real reasons to be cautious, whether it’s GxP compliance, ethical oversight, safety.
But too often, fear is the default, not a justified risk posture.
In a 2022 Deloitte survey of life sciences leaders, over 70% acknowledged digital transformation as critical, but only 23% had made meaningful changes to operational processes.
We talk about patient centricity.
We talk about site burden.
We talk about innovation.
But talk isn’t action; and talk doesn’t shrink timelines.
Ask the Hard Question
When teams say they’re “waiting to see how things play out,” it begs the question:
What exactly are you waiting for?
A regulatory mandate?
A crisis?
Someone else to take the first step?
At the end of the day, inaction is not a neutral choice.
It’s a bet that current pain is more tolerable than the effort of change.
But what if that bet is wrong?
Progress Doesn’t Require Perfection
Change doesn’t mean overhauling your entire tech stack or jumping on every brand new tech tool.
It starts with:
Reviewing and understanding the current landscape and internal flows.
Fixing broken workflows
Investing in tools that free up people, not overwhelm them
Prioritizing clarity and communication over bells and whistles
Piloting, learning, improving - continuously - not waiting for perfect conditions
Because in clinical trials, every day gained matters to patients, to staff, and to outcomes.
And every day lost to indecision is a day no one gets back.
Call to Reflection (Not Action)
This isn’t a product pitch. It’s a challenge to the mindset we’ve all inherited:
What’s the ROI (Return On Investment) of staying the same?
If you haven’t asked that question, now is the time.
And if you can’t answer it, the cost might already be showing.
We do not only advocate or educate when it comes to change and innovation in the clinical trials industry. We work with the industry to craft solutions. Clinials Content Hub is one of these - and one way to claw back these days of delays.
