ACT: Where do you see the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical trials in the next five years?
Lacroix: Naturally, we're going to see more growth in this space in terms of the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. I also think we're going to see more evidence on where to best focus artificial intelligence. I hear a lot of people in the industry talking about using artificial intelligence. I hear some organizations planning how they're going to use it, but we're still not seeing the actual tangible results of where we should focus as an industry and what are the things that are going to benefit the most in terms of reaping the benefits of those models. As I mentioned, we're seeing it in patient recruitment, we're seeing it in some of the outcomes and predictions for the right patient populations, and we're starting to see it in this drug discovery, but I think clinical trials and life science teams are still figuring out where they're going to get the most benefit.
If I think back to where we are five years from now, I think we're going to see smarter tools and more advanced analytics. As data managers and life science teams, we're going to need to continue to be involved and monitor these models, and I think humans will continue to be involved in the use of these models. I think and hope that, especially for those of us who look at data all day, we're going to see a lot more intelligence that helps us piece together the patient experience and the patient journey across the lifecycle. We still tend to look at aggregate data and the data as a whole, but intelligence is going to put together the patient story and help medical monitors and clinicians see and identify patterns in patients. In the long term, we're going to be able to do a lot more patient-centric trials and more individualized, patient-centric care, so we can better personalize care for patients. My hope is that we'll see better tools that allow us to develop more personalized medicines.
