Bridging policy and practice in smart clinical trials: Quantifying regulatory friction and technology adoption in Korea and the UK

These findings suggest that digital transformation in clinical research requires more than permissive policy frameworks; it depends on effective alignment among regulation, infrastructure, and implementation science. By introducing a reproducible framework that links regulatory friction to observed technology adoption, this study provides actionable insights for accelerating safe, interoperable, and scalable smart clinical trial deployment within evolving digital health ecosystems.