On 9 June, NWEH’s Chief Technology Officer, Owen Williams, took to the stage at the 13th Annual Outsourcing in Clinical Trials UK & Ireland 2026 conference to explore how real-world, real-time healthcare data is reshaping the future of clinical research. 

In his presentation, Powering Pragmatic Decentralised Trials with Real-World, Real-Time Data, Owen shared how clinical trials can move beyond traditional site-bound models and harness routinely collected healthcare data to deliver more efficient, inclusive, and meaningful research. 

Why Traditional Trial Models Need to Evolve 

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) remain the industry standard for generating clinical evidence, but they are not without limitations. 

Recruitment can be slow, data collection often relies on manual transcription, and participation can place significant burden on both patients and investigators. Despite increasing amounts of data being collected within modern trials, many studies continue to face rising costs and operational complexity. 

Traditional RCTs are designed to evaluate treatments under carefully controlled conditions. As a result, study populations may not always fully reflect the diversity of patients seen in routine clinical practice, follow-up periods can be limited, and the trial environment itself may differ from real-world settings. 

Increasingly, researchers are seeking complementary evidence that helps them understand how interventions perform in everyday clinical practice across broader patient populations and over longer periods of time. There is a growing opportunity to rethink how trials are delivered. 

The question is no longer whether real-world data has value in clinical research, but how it can be integrated into prospective studies to improve efficiency, inclusivity, and evidence generation. 

Building on a Proven Foundation 

NWEH has been at the forefront of real-world data-driven research for more than 15 years. 

This journey began with the ground-breaking Salford Lung Study, delivered in partnership with GSK, which demonstrated that pragmatic clinical trials conducted in real-world settings could generate robust evidence reflecting everyday patient care. 

Today, advances in healthcare data infrastructure and digital technologies mean these principles can be applied at greater scale than ever before. 

Accelerating Recruitment with Real-World Data 

A key focus of Owen’s presentation was the role of NWEH’s FARSITE platform in transforming participant recruitment. 

By leveraging routinely collected electronic health record (EHR) data, FARSITE enables rapid feasibility assessments and targeted patient identification against study criteria. Enhanced inclusivity is built into protocol design from the start through FARSITE’s capability to identify participants using key demographics, clinical history and deprivation scores.    

This helps researchers identify suitable participants faster, target recruitment activity more effectively, and build cohorts that better reflect real-world populations. 

Importantly, healthcare professionals remain central to the process, ensuring clinical oversight and patient suitability throughout recruitment. 

The result is a streamlined recruitment pathway that significantly reduces timelines while improving participant engagement and diversity. 

Studies using FARSITE have demonstrated consistently high participant conversion rates, with some trials achieving randomisation rates per site per month up to four times higher than comparable studies using more traditional approaches. 

Streamlining Study Delivery Through Connected Data 

Owen also explored how NWEH’s ConneXon platform supports decentralised and pragmatic trial delivery by bringing together routine healthcare data and study-specific information into a single connected environment. 

Rather than relying on multiple systems and manual transcription, ConneXon enables near real-time access to participant data, supporting: 

• Real-time participant monitoring  

• Reduced manual data entry  

• More efficient and effective safety reporting  

• Richer and more complete datasets  

• Improved operational oversight  

By reducing administrative burden and increasing data quality, researchers can focus more resources on study delivery and participant experience. 

The Benefits of Pragmatic, Decentralised Trials 

When real-world data is embedded throughout the clinical trial lifecycle, the benefits extend far beyond operational efficiencies. 

Pragmatic, decentralised trials can: 

• Reduce burden on participants  

• Improve inclusivity and accessibility  

• Support more representative study populations  

• Enable longer-term follow-up and registry studies  

• Generate evidence that better reflects routine clinical practice  

• Deliver deeper insights into treatment effectiveness and patient outcomes  

Perhaps most importantly, researchers gain access to evidence that reflects how medicines and interventions perform in the real world, rather than solely within tightly controlled trial environments. 

Collaboration is Critical 

While technology plays an important role, Owen highlighted that successful decentralised research depends on strong partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem. 

Sponsors, healthcare providers, community study sites, data custodians, regulators, technology partners, and operational delivery teams all have a role to play in creating scalable and sustainable research models. 

When these stakeholders work together effectively, real-world data can be transformed into meaningful evidence that benefits patients, healthcare systems, and future research. 

Looking Ahead 

The discussions at the Outsourcing in Clinical Trials conference reinforced a growing industry consensus: the future of clinical research will be increasingly decentralised, data-driven, and patient-centric. 

By combining real-world healthcare data with innovative technology platforms such as FARSITE and ConneXon, NWEH is helping sponsors and research organisations deliver studies that are faster, more efficient, and more reflective of everyday clinical practice. 

As the industry continues to evolve, the opportunity to generate better evidence with less burden and greater inclusivity has never been greater. 

To learn more about NWEH’s approach to pragmatic, decentralised trials and real-world evidence generation, please get in touch with our team.