Harmonizing patient engagement

By Emil Hoeck and Christine Phillips

Healthcare stakeholders recognize that there is a clear, ethical rationale to sup­port patient engagement in clinical trials. Setting standards that describe how patient engagement is achieved will lead to research findings that are more pertinent to patients’ concerns and dilemmas.1 However, as there are limited comparative analytic studies to recommend a particular method that improves understanding of patients’ concerns1 and enables comparisons of the methods employed, it is unclear how to best engage patients and how to measure the suc­cess of engagement.

Patient engagement is well described by the Clinical Trials Transformation Initia­tive (CTTI) (figure 1). Sustained engagement with patients offers industry- and academic-led research first-hand insights that can help shape clinical trials to the benefit of all stake­holders in clinical development. The engage­ment process may improve the credibility of clinical trial results and the relevance to the population, and may have an empowering effect on participants. Several studies have also demonstrated a positive impact on pa­tient enrollment, retention and the dissemi­nation of trial results to participants and the community.3,4

To read the full articles for this issue of The CenterWatch Monthly, please click here for subscription information.