Why Clinical Trials Fail Even When the Science Is Strong with Heather Grey of Omega Healthcare

·14 min·1 clip

Heather Grey explains why 88% of health systems fail to offer clinical trials to patients.

The episode features an interview with Heather Grey, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Omega Healthcare, recorded live at the HLTH Conference in Las Vegas. Grey begins by discussing the growing acceptance of AI in healthcare and its potential advantages. She introduces Omega's Curate IQ platform, a curation service that transforms raw, messy data into usable datasets with over 95% accuracy, primarily focused on oncology but with experience in other areas like mental health and cardiac care. Grey explains that clinical trials frequently fail not because of the science but due to operational issues such as inconsistent data, missed timelines, and lack of site availability. She emphasizes the importance of clean, FDA-quality data to keep trials on schedule. The conversation shifts to the challenges in trial access, with Grey citing statistics that 88% of health systems do not offer clinical trials and 89% of patients are treated at community health centers where only 3% of trials are run. She attributes this gap to infrastructure and operational barriers. Grey calls for education among patients, providers, and pharma to improve awareness and efficiency. She describes Omega's unique approach of blending human clinical expertise with AI, using it to amplify rather than replace clinicians, and feeding curated data into AI models. Grey shares an example where Omega cleaned up 10 years of backlogged data for a health system in six months. The episode concludes with a discussion on the need for diversity in trials, the role of nonprofits in enabling community sites, and Grey's contact information for further inquiries.

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