The 3rd annual Disruptive Innovations to Advance Clinical Trials (also known as Dpharm) will take place on September 19-20 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston, MA.
The Conference Forum, which produces Disruptive Innovations, is offering Rebar Interactive blog readers who attend the event a 20% discount.
In essence, the aptly named Disruptive Innovations conference is an event for clinical trial professionals who seek to reinvent clinical trials. (If you want to know more about the conference and my experience attending last year, scroll down.)
To claim the discount, go to the registration page and use the code REH20 during the checkout process.
In addition to a discount for the main conference, The Conference Forum is providing a discount to pre-conference events. Here are the accompanying discount codes:
- Executing Global Clinical Trials (20% Discount) – REH20
- Adaptive Designs in Clinical Trials (10% Discount) – REH10
A Word About Innovation
The word “innovation” is often used almost interchangeably with the word “technology.” It seems some believe that the mere use of the latest newfangled technology is inherently innovative.
I disagree.
I’m a fairly technology obsessed person. But that obsession stems mostly from technology’s power as a facilitator, not as an end itself. For meaningful innovation, you need more than technology.
Many disruptive innovations don’t use cutting edge technology. Rather, they use technology that has been around for a few or more years. The technology doesn’t become disruptive until someone, finally, successfully packages it in a manner that creates new business paradigms.
And that is the hard part. Disruptive innovations require first that we disrupt our own mental models. (Pfizer’s virtual clinical trial, in my opinion, was an important milestone in that sense.)
A Disruptive Innovations Overview
What’s great about the Disruptive Innovations conference is that it addresses all innovation ingredients.
You certainly will find content related to technology, which is important. But you will also find content related to culture, creativity, operations, and other areas critical to the disruptive innovation recipe. (Sorry, when you live in New Orleans, it’s hard not to throw out food metaphors on occassion.)
The Conference Forum has a brief video that provides a great overview of what the event is about:
If you’d like a detailed attendee perspective on the conference, you’re in luck. I wrote two blog posts describing last year’s Disruptive Innovations. You can read them here:
- Disruptive Innovations to Advance Clinical Trials: Thoughts & Themes
- Disruptive Innovations To Advance Clinical Trials: A Social Recap
This Year’s Agenda
If The Conference Forum has the right recipe for disruptive innovation, then what’s on the menu? (There I go with the food metaphors again.)
Here’s a quick glance at the agenda. But for more detail, you’ll definitely want to head over to the Disruptive Innovations website.
Day 1
- How Not to Do a Traditional Clinical Trial
- Innovation in Alternative Clinical Settings: The Walgreens-Novartis Collaboration
- Keynote Fireside Chat with Google Ventures
- Innovation in Regulatory
- An Interview with TransCelerate’s CEO on Progress & Disruption
- Patient eConsent Pilot Results
- An Interview Series of Disruptive Thinkers hosted by Craig Lipset, Pfizer
- The 2nd Annual Quick Fire Disruptive Technology Presentations in an “American Idol” Format
Day 2
- MIT Hackathon Results to Barriers in Clinical Trials
- VIP Guest Session: The Mobile Banking Revolution in Africa: What can Drug Developers Learn from this Extraordinary Example of Disruption?
- Executing Disruptive Innovation: What You Need to Know and Do to Have Breakthrough Performance
- Discovery Channel Interview Series
- Disruptive Case Study on Next Generation Clinical Monitoring
- The Pfizer Blue Button Project: Engaging Patients by Sharing Electronic Clinical Data
- The Investigator POV: What Disruption is Needed to Achieve Better Relationships
- Clinical Trial Visit of the Future: Interactive Session
Let’s Meet!
Another aspect I really enjoyed about last year’s Disruptive Innovations was the kind of audience the conference theme attracted. The attendees are more innovation-minded, so if you are of that mindset, it’s exciting and refreshing to interact with them.
Speaking of which, get in touch if you’d like to meet. I will be attending again this year.
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