Delivering equitable access to clinical trials across Australia isn’t just a technical or logistical challenge—it’s a moral imperative. At Eli Lilly Australia, we’ve long believed that innovation isn’t solely about discovering something new. Often, it’s about forming the right partnerships, listening deeply, and combining expertise to meet unmet needs in ways that are practical, scalable, and impactful.

That belief was the foundation of a powerful collaboration between Eli Lilly and Heart of Australia, an organisation that shares our commitment to healthcare equity. Together, we’ve reimagined how and where clinical trials can be conducted—bringing them directly to the doorsteps of some of the nation’s most remote communities.

Heart of Australia, under the leadership of visionary cardiologist Dr. Rolf Gomes, has spent the last decade delivering specialist medical services via a fleet of state-of-the-art mobile medical clinics. When we learned about this groundbreaking model, it was immediately clear that a partnership could help bridge a significant gap: ensuring that people in rural and remote Australia—especially First Nations communities—can access, and contribute to, the very research that shapes tomorrow’s treatments.

While many sponsors can run successful trials without reaching outside urban centres, doing so risks reinforcing health inequities and narrowing the population represented in clinical data. That’s not acceptable to us, nor to Heart of Australia. Our partnership was born from a shared desire to change that narrative.

Of course, bringing clinical trials into a mobile, rural environment was no small feat. Regulatory standards, protocol adherence, and cold-chain logistics can pose significant challenges even in traditional sites. But what made this initiative possible was not just Heart of Australia’s advanced infrastructure—compliant, generator-powered, temperature-monitored mobile clinics—but the strength of the collaboration itself.

Together, with Heart of Australia's Senior Project Manager Melissa Reedy and her team, we co-designed a new operational model tailored to the realities of delivering sponsor-led clinical trials on the road. From developing customised SOPs and selecting the right digital tools for documentation and monitoring, to navigating IP transportation and community engagement, each step was a testament to open communication, shared problem-solving, and mutual trust.

While our original plan centred around one truck on a fixed Queensland route, the dynamic nature of real-world clinical operations demanded agility. In response, we jointly expanded the initiative to cover multiple satellite locations.  This also involved Heart of Australia investing in smaller mobile clinics to provide more flexibility in delivering clinical trials.   . These adaptations didn’t come from one side—they emerged from continuous, collaborative dialogue between the sponsor, CRO, and site teams, all working toward a common goal.

Today, the results of this partnership speak volumes. Two trials are now underway through Heart of Australia, including one sponsored by Lilly, with 11 patients enrolled and additional participants engaged through a second study. Among them are 15 screened First Nations individuals—two of whom have been successfully enrolled. These may seem like small numbers, but their significance cannot be overstated.

What’s been most rewarding, however, is the response from the communities themselves. For many rural participants, contributing to a clinical trial isn’t just about their own health—it’s about being part of something larger, a movement toward more inclusive and representative healthcare.

This collaboration between Eli Lilly and Heart of Australia has demonstrated that innovation in clinical research isn’t confined to scientific breakthroughs. It’s also about reshaping systems to ensure that access to those breakthroughs is fair and far-reaching. Together, we’re proving that, with the right partnership, commitment, and creativity, we can bring trials to the heart of the nation—and ensure no one is left behind.