One of the pain points in drug development is the process of recruiting patients for clinical trials. It is one reason for delays in starting trials. Although contract research organizations, patient foundations and physician practices play a role in recruitment, some companies are focusing on a patient-centric approach to help pharmaceutical companies engage patients and improve the pace of recruitment.
The idea is that prospective participants won’t be easily intimidated and increase the likelihood of contacting recruiters.
Healthline’s collaboration with TrialReach is an example of that trend. It emphasizes natural language over medical jargon. It pairs a health information aggregator with TrialReach’s clinical trial locator platform. Trial Reach’s platform helps medical research teams, regardless of their size, convert their protocols into interactive, digestible pages. It also makes the most of Healthline’s content partners to make clinical trial information easier to find for users. A search for trials for MS, for example, produces several clinical trials, listed in order of proximity. Each section lists a paragraph of information that can be expanded so it doesn’t overwhelm users. The details are spaced out so the text is easy on the eyes and the contact information is readily identifiable to hold users’ attention.
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Reg4all or Registries for All, takes a more indirect approach to clinical trials. It was developed by Genetic Alliance with some backing from Sanofi to provide a matchmaking service for patients and clinical trials. Participants can control who sees their contact details and which groups can use their data, such as how their information is dispersed. They answer as many questions about their health as they want with the idea that the response rate will be better the more questions they answer. They also control the level of access to their information such as who has to ask for their information, who can and who can’t readily access the information such as disease support groups, researchers working on treatments for that patient’s condition and researchers not working on treatments for that particular condition.
PatientsLikeMe has a clinical trials matchmaking tool and developed an open research exchange so patients can give feedback to improve clinical trial design.
Centerwatch has been in the clinical trial recruitment space for 20 years, but it doesn’t focus on patients alone. Although it has one section devoted to information on clinical trials for patients, it also caters to clinical trial sponsors and CROs.
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