Clinical Trials 2.0: Reinventing Research For The Digital Age
The future of clinical trial recruitment is social.
Clinical research is changing. No longer the sole preserve of clinicians and researchers, the Internet is reinventing the way in which patients take part in the clinical trials process.
“Clinical research” is among the most searched terms on the Internet; yet every year hundreds of trials are delayed or abandoned because they can’t recruit enough patients.
Poor rates of trial recruitment are a major obstacle to the successful and efficient completion of clinical trials.
Insufficient recruitment of study participants may result in losing the statistical power of a predictive conclusion, as well as prolonging the time it takes to get the trial drug to market.
Oncology trials in particular are failing to meet enrolment goals, with most delays in conducting trials stemming from recruitment.
85 percent of cancer patients don’t know trials are an option
55 percent of clinical oncology sites fail to get a single patient because they simply can’t find them and one-third of trials fail to recruit a single patient.
Given that enrolment into a clinical trial is frequently the best treatment option for patients with cancer, how might we make more patients aware of the benefits of clinical trials?
Combining the power of new technologies with social networking and patient activation is our best chance at galvanizing the process of patient recruitment, and perhaps even an opportunity for us to completely reinvent the process of clinical research itself.
The Internet has opened a window to the world of clinical research.
With the click of a mouse, we can now access information on the latest trials, download medical information to our portable devices, connect with researchers in real-time, and find other patients with the same condition.
The traditional methods of advertising clinical trials through print media, brochures, or poster displays, meant geographic limitations narrowed the pool of potential recruits.
Using popular social networking sites, researchers can now accelerate the recruitment process by extending their social reach to take in a global pool of potential recruits.
Harnessing this dynamic combination of new digital and mobile platforms, social media, and activated patients offers an unprecedented opportunity for patients and researchers to find each other with greater speed and precision, which in turn can speed up the process of recruitment to clinical trials.
Peer-To-Peer Education
The ability to engage interactively through social media further enhances the benefits to patients.
Reading information in a brochure doesn’t compare to the ability to interact and ask questions on a social networking site.
What is it really like to take part in a clinical trial?
Would you need to travel?
Will it incur any personal expenses?
What kind of side effects might you have?
Trial sponsors can respond in real-time to these questions, thus speeding up the recruitment process. In addition, patients already enrolled in the trial can provide personal insight into what is involved.
One patient, who has participated in two Phase 1 clinical trials, said that he was motivated to sign up for them, by reading others’ stories online. Hearing about the experiences of others who had participated and “come out the other side” encouraged him to take part.
Patients Are Doing It For Themselves
The communication process which traditionally flowed from pharmaceutical companies to physicians to patients has been transformed by social media.
Patients, who have traditionally relied on their doctors for information about the latest clinical research, are now realizing that information may be more readily found in their online patient communities.
A growing number of ePatients, empowered by the Internet and emerging new technologies, are leveraging their online communities to drive and support the research agenda.
From providing input into study design protocol to raising awareness of the value of clinical trials and recruiting trial volunteers, patient influencers play a key role in accelerating the new research paradigm.
The Future Of Clinical Trial Recruitment Is Social
The need for a faster and more globally scalable approach to trial recruitment, planning, and design, is clear.
To address challenges such as public awareness and understanding of clinical trials, increased competition for patients, and decreased effectiveness of traditional advertising, requires new solutions.
Social media are a key part of the solution.
Social media offers patients greater accessibility and convenience of communication and information.
For researchers and CROs, social media offers a unique opportunity for innovative trial recruitment modalities, increased efficiency, and accelerated research outcomes.
People are social creatures by nature; harnessing our innate desire for connection, to new information, social and technology platforms is the best chance we have to drive the next generation of research forward.