Patients are the most important stakeholder in the whole clinical trials process. For people outside the industry, this may seem like an obvious statement – so they would likely be surprised how little involvement there has traditionally been for patients in the trial design process.

It’s undeniably the case that, without patients – trial participants – there would be no clinical trials. And consequently no drug development or pharmaceuticals industry.

So it’s good to see a move in recent years towards true patient-centricity in the design and operation of clinical trials – rather than simply paying lip service in a ‘checkbox exercise’.

Patients are volunteers in the process and should really be regarded as a trial’s most valuable asset. They are – after all – giving up their time, and putting their physiology on the line, in order to help develop better treatments and healthcare outcomes for us all.