Ebook

The 90-Day Advantage

How AI-ready life sciences companies are positioning for the FDA's Real-Time Clinical Trial mandate.

On April 28, 2026, the FDA launched two proof-of-concept trials, run with AstraZeneca and Amgen, that transmit safety signals and endpoint data to reviewers in real time as a trial progresses — not months later when batch data finally clears the pipeline. The agency has set August 2026 as the point for finalizing its first pilot selections.

This eBook argues that the distinction between reading this as news and reading it as a deadline is the distinction that will separate the sponsors selected for that first cohort from everyone else. It walks through what changed in how trial data moves, what the pilot will expose about a sponsor's data infrastructure, and what a short runway can still close.

The eBook proposes a five-pillar readiness framework spanning real-time data architecture, AI-powered signal intelligence, secure and compliant AI governance, agentic workflow orchestration, and protocol digitalization through a machine-readable digital twin. It includes a six-dimension self-assessment VPs of Clinical Operations can complete in five minutes, and an anonymized case study showing a Phase 1b-to-Phase 2 timeline compressed by four months after a dosing anomaly was caught three weeks earlier than the old batch-review cycle would have allowed.

  • What the FDA's RTCT announcement changes, and why the window is narrower than it looks
  • A six-dimension self-assessment: are you RTCT-ready?
  • The Altimetrik RTCT Framework — five pillars of readiness
  • An anonymized case study: four months compressed, one signal caught early

Author Details

Ramji P Vasudevan
Head, Health Care & Life Sciences, Altimetrik
Ramji leads the Health Care and Life Sciences business at Altimetrik. He has spent more than 20 years in technology, starting in software engineering and moving into data engineering and product development. His work covers digital patient journeys, unified health data platforms, remote patient monitoring, and clinical data interoperability using FHIR.
Sabyasachi (Sabby) Gupta
Senior Client Partner, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Altimetrik
Sabby brings more than 20 years across healthcare and life sciences technology, including R&D clinical data operations, virtual trials, real-world evidence platforms, and AI/ML engineering. He holds a Master of Management in Clinical Informatics and teaches data science as adjunct faculty at the University of North Carolina.