What You Should Know:
– WellSky and uMed have formed a strategic partnership to integrate clinical research opportunities directly into the workflows of home-based care providers. By combining WellSky’s network of 10,000 providers with uMed’s automated registry platform, the initiative allows patients—particularly in underserved and rural areas—to participate in national research registries without leaving their homes.
– The model is designed to generate high-quality real-world data (RWD) for conditions like Parkinson’s and autoimmune disorders while imposing zero administrative burden on care providers.
How WellSky and uMed Are Bringing Clinical Trials into the Living Room
For decades, the “gold standard” of clinical research has suffered from a geographic and demographic flaw: it mostly happens within the walls of major academic medical centers. This centralization has historically excluded vast swaths of the population—specifically the aging, the rural, and the underserved—resulting in data that rarely reflects the true diversity of the patient population.
Today, WellSky and uMed announced a partnership that aims to dismantle these walls. By integrating research registries into the home-based care ecosystem, the two companies are betting that the future of medical evidence isn’t in the hospital, but in the home.
The collaboration marries WellSky’s massive provider network—spanning more than 10,000 home-based care providers—with uMed’s ACCESS Cohorts, an automated platform designed to build patient registries at scale.
The “Zero-Friction” Model
The primary hurdle for decentralizing clinical trials has always been provider workflow. Home health aides and visiting nurses are already stretched thin; adding the burden of data collection for research is usually a non-starter.
This partnership addresses that friction through automation. The initiative begins with a simple Registry Participation Agreement. Once signed, uMed takes the wheel, managing patient identification, outreach, consent, and support.
“Partnering with WellSky allows us to reach patients where they are—at home—while ensuring the process is seamless for clinical teams,” said Matt Wilson, MD, founder and CEO of uMed.
For the provider, the process is designed to be invisible regarding workload but visible regarding value. Participating providers gain access to live dashboards that surface real-time patient outcome data. This feedback loop allows clinicians to see the aggregate health trends of their population without having to manually administer the research protocols.
Targeting the “Hard-to-Reach”
The clinical focus of this rollout targets complex therapeutic areas including Parkinson’s disease, cardiometabolic conditions, and autoimmune disorders. These are conditions where longitudinal, real-world data (RWD) regarding medication usability and treatment preferences is incredibly valuable but difficult to capture outside of clinical appointments.
Bill Miller, Chairman and CEO of WellSky, emphasized that this is an infrastructure play designed to close the equity gap.
“Access to clinical research has historically been limited for many patients, particularly those not connected to major academic medical centers,” said Miller. “By integrating WellSky’s expansive provider network with uMed’s turnkey registry infrastructure, we are establishing a new framework for inclusive, patient-centered research.”
