Digital Health Off The Record

Digital Health Off The Record is your unfiltered take on clinical technology and the future of trials. Hosted by Farrell Healion and Edwin Cohen, we explore the trends, tensions and breakthroughs shaping digital health today. Expect open, informal conversations, practical insights and honest perspectives from leaders across the ecosystem. No scripts, no spin, just real dialogue about what is working, what is not, and what comes next.

Digital Health Off The Record is a science podcast hosted by Farrell Healion and Edwin Cohen, with 13 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Farrell Healion and Edwin Cohen hosts Digital Health Off The Record, a science show with 13 episodes published.

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  Digital Health Off The Record

  Life as a Clinical Trials Startup: Lessons from the Frontline

  Sep 22, 202637 min

  What does it really take to build a startup in the clinical-trial space? In this episode of Digital Health Off the Record , Farrell Healion and Edwin are joined by Ashton, Founder and CEO of SheppAI, for an honest conversation about building in a complex, risk-averse industry. Ashton shares lessons from his journey: finding genuine customer pain, testing ideas, earning trust, working with design partners, and staying focused when things do not go to plan. The conversation also explores why even well-funded partnerships can fail, and the importance of relationships, resilience, and solving problems rooted in lived experience. Featuring Ashton, Founder and CEO of SheppAI. Hosted by Farrell Healion and Edwin. #ClinicalTrials #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #ClinicalResearch #Startups In this episode 01:29 | The challenge of breaking into clinical trials 04:40 | Finding product-market fit: seek invalidation, not validation 07:09 | Building credibility and trust with prospective customers 09:15 | The problem SheppAI is solving for sponsors and vendors 15:15 | Testing a new product idea with end users 16:13 | Using prototypes to shape a focused pilot 19:05 | Why real-world feedback matters 21:04 | Building design partnerships through your network 24:24 | Why startup failures offer the biggest lessons 25:18 | When even major partnerships fail 30:29 | Staying aligned on a shared vision 33:24 | Closing advice for aspiring founders

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  Digital Health Off The Record

  Patient Recruitment in Clinical Trials: It Starts with Better Design

  Jul 14, 202636 min

  Patient recruitment remains one of the biggest causes of clinical trial delays. So why, after decades of investment, innovation and expertise, does the industry still struggle to solve it? In this episode of Digital Health: Off the Record , Edwin Cohen and Farrell Healion are joined by patient recruitment specialist and author Ross Jackson. Ross challenges the idea that recruitment is primarily an advertising problem. The conversation explores why recruitment and retention must be considered from the earliest stages of trial design, the critical role sites continue to play, and why opening more sites is rarely a complete solution. The discussion also looks at recruitment costs and commercial models, the growing use of AI, and how digital twins and synthetic control arms could transform the number and type of patients required for future trials. What we cover: Why recruitment must begin with trial design - 01:13 How patient outreach and access have evolved - 04:04 Why sites remain central to recruitment success - 13:20 Understanding site performance and where to focus - 17:26 The cost of recruitment and different pricing models - 20:10 How AI is changing patient identification and engagement - 26:04 Digital twins, synthetic controls and the future of trials - 30:24 Designing trials for patients, not around them - 34:00 Ross leaves us with a simple but powerful principle: design every trial as though it were for you or someone you love.

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  Digital Health Off The Record

  Site Payments and Patient Reimbursement: Who Carries the Cost?

  Jun 30, 202630 min

  Clinical trials cannot run without research sites and participants. Yet both can end up carrying significant costs while waiting to be reimbursed. In this episode of Digital Health Off the Record , Edwin and Farrell explore the often-overlooked realities of payments in clinical trials. From site budgets that fail to capture the true workload to patient expenses that can become barriers to participation, they discuss why getting payments right is essential for sustainable and accessible research. Building on previous conversations about site burden, patient-centred trial design and fragmented technology, they also consider whether digital payment tools are genuinely simplifying the process or creating another system for sites to manage. In this episode, we cover: Why timely and fair site payments matter - 00:51 The hidden work that trial budgets can overlook - 03:02 Payment delays and their impact on site cash flow - 14:37 Patient reimbursement and barriers to participation - 19:12 Technology, ethics and planning for long-term costs - 23:58

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  Digital Health Off The Record

  Patient Voice in Clinical Trial Design: Recruitment, Retention and Real-World Burden

  Jun 16, 202628 min

  Patient centricity is not a new topic in clinical trials, but it is one the industry still needs to keep coming back to. In this episode of Digital Health Off the Record , Farrell Healion and Edwin Cohen explore why incorporating patient voice earlier in study design can make a real difference to recruitment, retention and the overall patient experience. We discuss how patient input can help reduce unnecessary burden, improve protocol design, support more meaningful inclusion criteria and make trials work better around real life. We also look at where digital health technologies, DCT capabilities, patient feedback tools and patient engagement roles can help - and where simply adding more technology risks creating the opposite effect. As always, this is an honest conversation about what the industry is getting right, where we still fall short and how we can design better trials for patients, sites and sponsors. In this episode, we cover: Why patient voice matters for recruitment, retention and study success 00:25 How earlier patient input can improve protocol design and reduce burden 03:50 Designing trials around real-world patient needs, diversity and access 05:46 The role of DCTs, digital tools and patient feedback in improving the trial experience 12:55 Why patient centricity still struggles to stick in practice 21:10 Balancing standardisation with meaningful flexibility in global trials 25:26

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  Digital Health Off The Record

  eConsent in Clinical Trials: More Than a Digital Signature

  Jun 2, 202625 minS0

  <p>eConsent has been discussed in clinical trials for years, but it still feels underused compared with other patient-facing technologies like eCOA.</p><p>In this episode of Digital Health Off the Record, Farrell and Edwin take a practical look at what eConsent really means, why it should be more than a PDF with an electronic signature, and how it can improve the consent experience for patients, sites and sponsors.</p><p>We discuss:</p>Why eConsent still has not reached its full potential (00:24)What eConsent should mean beyond a digital signature (01:17)How eConsent can improve patient understanding and accessibility (03:45...

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