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Kaila Trawitzki was diagnosed with long COVID in November 2020 and, since then, has never recovered. The Sacramento, California, software engineering consultant said her ongoing symptoms, as well as the cost and risk for travel, make most onsite clinical research trials off limits.

But last year, when scientists at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, started recruiting patients for a long COVID treatment trial that would be conducted remotely rather than on site, she signed up immediately. "Knowing I could do it from home was really appealing to me," said Trawitzki.

As many as 17 million people in the United States currently have long COVID, yet experts say trials have been slow to enroll patients, in part because traveling to central trial locations can be costly and difficult for people suffering from fatigue, nausea, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal issues, and more. The remote trials that allow participants to take most, if not all experimental therapies at home, allow even the sickest patients with long COVID to participate.

Researchers at Yale, and elsewhere, say remote trials could lead to greater participation and speed the development of sorely needed new treatments for those with long COVID. Head over to Medscape to read the full story.