EQUAL ACCESS RESEARCH RESUMES DATA COLLECTION ACROSS 10 CLINICAL SITES IN 2023

GAINESVILLE, FL., JANUARY 30TH, 2022 -Equal Access resumes patient enrollment across 10 clinical sites at UF Health for both the MobileECG and Distraction-Based Virtual Reality Study on January 27th, 2023.

As patient enrollment resumes for 2023, the Director & Principal Investigator for Equal Access Research - Ajay Mittal is eager to share the results of these digital health studies at a number of medical conferences as well as publishing results as enrollment goals are reached. “In 2023 we seek to complete recruitment at a number of our clinical sites in the first half of the year as well as launch a series of new studies in the later half of the year.”

Equal Access Research began in 2018 with the purpose of expanding the adoption of medical technology to clinical settings. At the forefront of this mission lies two large scale clinical trials: the MobileECG and Virtual Reality Studies that involve 100+ research assistants and have recruited 2,000+ patients since beginning enrollment in Oct 2020 & Feb 2021, respectively.

The Distraction-Based Virtual Reality (VR) Study is focused on  examining whether the usage of VR can reduce perceived pain and anxiety in patients. Data from the CDC show in 2020, 24% of all opioid overdose deaths resulted from prescription opioids. As these numbers continue to rise, medical practitioners look towards alternate solutions to manage pain. Virtual reality offers a non-pharmacologic alternative. This year Equal Access Research looks forward to expanding data collection and aims to be a solution to the ongoing opioid epidemic as well as publishing findings from their pilot study involving bone marrow biopsies.

The MobileECG Study operates at 6 clinical sites and seeks to utilize a simple, 30 second rhythm strip captured by just using a patient’s fingertips as a screening tool for atrial fibrillation in populations at elevated risk. Victoria Vailoces, the Director of Clinical Research, looks forward to the growth of the MobileECG project. “The MobileECG study has expanded a lot from just one site with fifteen research assistants to six with over a hundred actively recruiting participants. By expanding our team, we’ve been able to recruit 1960 patients. With this team of members, our goal of reaching 3930 patients across all six sites looks promising.”

Written By: Bhumika Upmanyu