FutureMeds Wins SCRS Patient Centricity Award for Preserving Research Access in Ukraine
Over 4 years of work, 93% participant-retention rate, expansion from two sites to four and 74 sponsor study allocations underpin the work recognised by the 2026 award.
FutureMeds has won the 2026 SCRS Excellence in Patient Centricity Award for its work to preserve clinical research access in Ukraine during the war.
“For many of our patients, a clinical trial is the best treatment option they have. The war tried to take that option away. This award belongs to our teams in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia and Lviv, who for four years have kept studies running through air-raid alerts and blackouts. Continuity is not a plan in a binder, it is people.”
— Dr Ivan Vyshnyvetskyy, Managing Director of FutureMeds Ukraine
The winning entry, “Keeping the Door to Research Open,” documented how our Ukrainian site teams have been working together with the wider local research community and supported by colleagues across the FutureMeds network, maintained participation, preserved research capacity and helped secure new study opportunities.
Based on operational data, the submission reported:
93% participant retention, supported by adapted visit arrangements and business-continuity procedures.
Growth from two Ukrainian sites to four, with investment in Vinnytsia in 2023 and a hospital partnership in Lviv in 2025.
74 sponsor study allocations from March 2022 through July 2026, following sustained work by local and global teams to keep Ukrainian sites under consideration.
These results connect the immediate responsibility to support existing participants with the longer-term work needed to make research available to future patients.
Maintaining participation through disruption
FutureMeds entered Ukraine through established sites in Kyiv and Zhytomyr in December 2021. Weeks later, the full-scale invasion displaced patients and colleagues and disrupted travel, communication and study logistics.
Teams contacted participants and worked with investigators and sponsors to determine what was safe and appropriate for each person. Decisions included continuing participation, rearranging visits, transferring to another site, or interrupting or ending participation where necessary.
In March 2022, the Kyiv team coordinated with a sponsor and receiving sites in Poland to support transfers for participants who chose to relocate.
As the war continued, teams adapted scheduling, arranged home visits where protocols permitted and strengthened arrangements for backup electricity, temperature monitoring, study supplies, records and staff cover.
The 93% retention rate gives a measure of the continuity achieved. Retention remained subject to participant choice, safety and protocol requirements.
“Behind the retention figure are individual decisions: contacting someone who had moved, rearranging a visit or working with a sponsor to establish whether participation could safely continue. Our teams were doing this while facing the same disruption in their own lives.”
— Dr Ivan Vyshnyvetskyy, Managing Director of FutureMeds Ukraine
Preserving the capacity to bring studies back
Continuity for existing participants would not, on its own, preserve access for the next patient. New studies needed experienced investigators, coordinators, functioning sites and sponsors willing to assess their capabilities.
FutureMeds continued investing. It added a third site in Vinnytsia in 2023 and established a fourth, hospital-based location with Sheptytsky Hospital in Lviv in 2025.
Local and global colleagues then worked together to turn that capacity into study opportunities. Site teams supplied current information about patient populations, investigator availability and operating conditions. Business development and feasibility colleagues brought that evidence into sponsor and CRO discussions, alongside information about logistics and continuity arrangements.
“We did not ask sponsors to overlook the risks,” said Ivan. “We gave them current evidence, explained what our sites could deliver and were clear about the limits. That helped keep Ukrainian patients under consideration.”
Between March 2022 and July 2026, that work supported 74 sponsor study allocations to FutureMeds’ Ukrainian sites.
The allocations represented opportunities for new research activity. They also demonstrate why retaining teams and maintaining infrastructure mattered: sponsors had operational sites to assess when considering Ukraine.
How the FutureMeds model contributed
The achievements depended on three connected elements: local expertise, support across the network and continued investment.
“Our Ukrainian colleagues have carried the daily responsibility of supporting participants in exceptionally difficult circumstances. Our responsibility across FutureMeds has been to make sure they have support beyond their own sites. Continued investment gave those teams capacity to build on. The results show how these contributions work together: continuity for participants, four operating locations and new study allocations. That is what shared processes and network support need to enable.”
— Marcin Gondek, Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer of FutureMeds
Across FutureMeds’ Ukrainian operations from their start through July 31, 2026, the submission recorded 1,341 people screened and 786 randomised across 128 completed, ongoing/recruiting studies.
Recognition for a shared contribution
FutureMeds’ work forms part of a wider effort by local patients, investigators, hospitals, research sites, regulators, ethics committees, sponsors, CROs and logistics providers to maintain research in Ukraine.
The award recognises a contribution sustained over more than four years. Ukrainian colleagues continued supporting participants, while teams across FutureMeds helped preserve capacity and secure opportunities for future studies.
FutureMeds congratulates fellow finalists Hawthorne Health and Civia Health and thanks SCRS for the recognition.
The work continues: supporting current participants, maintaining experienced teams and preparing for appropriate new studies.
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