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 collaboration 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 a 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 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."
Source: https://www.castoredc.com/