A new partnership between Cera, Europe’s largest HealthTech company, and automated living registry platform uMed is bringing clinical research directly to the homes of those who need access to innovative treatments the most.
The collaboration enables Life Sciences organisations to access ‘invisible’ cohorts – such as the housebound and elderly – enabling them to participate in life-changing studies.
Accessibility is a major barrier to research.
A 2025 study on clinical trial diversity highlighted that poor mobility and distance from research sites are the two largest obstacles to trial enrollment for the over-65s.
Cera and uMed are tackling this by bringing recruitment to patients’ doorsteps, driving more diverse and representative data for the Life Sciences sector.
By connecting Cera’s national home healthcare network with uMed’s research platform, the partnership removes physical barriers and any potential disruption to routine or care to participation in clinical research.
Instead of requiring patients to visit a hospital for screening, the process is handled digitally in the home:
- Cera leverages its vast network of healthcare professionals and real-time healthcare data, collected from more than 2.5 million monthly home care visits, to identify eligible participants based on clinical needs.
- uMed provides the regulated platform to manage the ‘last mile’ of recruitment, including ethical outreach and digital consenting. It allows patients to participate in longitudinal research studies from their own homes, with no disruption to routine care.
This ensures Life Sciences sponsors can include a true ‘real-world’ population of individuals, such as those living with multiple chronic conditions or frailty, who have historically been difficult groups to recruit into research and trials.
Dr Ben Maruthappu MBE, founder and CEO of Cera, said: “For too long, the most vulnerable people in our society have been inaccessible to the teams developing the medicines they need.
“The home is where care happens, so it makes sense for it to be where clinical research happens too.
“By bringing studies directly to the patient, we are reaching ‘invisible’ cohorts who have been excluded from medical progress for decades.
“This partnership removes the physical barriers to participation, ensuring the next generation of medicines are developed for – and with – the people who need them most.”
Operational Impact for Life Sciences
The partnership directly addresses historical barriers to clinical research recruitment:
- The recruitment process is brought to the patient by Cera, to remove the need for initial travel to a clinical site.
- uMed provides the regulated platform to manage the ‘last mile’ of recruitment, including ethical outreach and digital consenting.
- Life Sciences sponsors can recruit from a ‘real-world’ population to ensure treatments are developed specifically to meet the needs of older individuals living with multiple chronic conditions and frailty.
- The partnership operates under strict governance to ensure all patient participation is transparent, voluntary, and GDPR-compliant.
- The infrastructure supports Decentralised Trials (DCTs) by providing a direct pipeline for home-based data collection and testing.
“uMed’s mission is to make research more accessible and representative,” said Matt Wilson, MD, founder and CEO of uMed.
“By partnering with Cera, we can find the right participants faster and keep them engaged longer, thus accelerating recruitment without adding burden to providers or patients. This is a significant step forward for patient-centric care.”
The initiative builds on Cera’s ‘Trials at Home’ programme, which brings clinical trials directly into the homes of research participants.
By proving that the home can be a regulated research environment, Cera is helping to bridge the gap between home care and research.
Find out more about Cera at cerahq.com
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