Outcome Health has introduced a new solution designed to increase patient recruitment for clinical trials. More than 200,000 physicians across the U.S. already use Outcome Health’s healthcare decision platform. Outcome Health demonstrated the new solution at the Summit for Clinical Ops Executives (SCOPE) conference in Miami last week.

One of the greatest concerns in drug development is the ability to recruit patients for clinical trials. Even though the pharmaceuticals industry spends an estimated $19 billion each year to boost patient recruitment, drug development and research has lagged for several decades due to the inability to recruit a sufficient number of patients for clinical trials. By some estimates, enrollment numbers are unmet at nearly half of all clinical trial sites. Patients are often unaware of potential therapies for their diseases that may be available through enrollment.

“There’s a great necessity to innovate within the industry,” said Don Butler, senior vice president, R&D Solutions at Outcome Health. “Approximately 86% of all clinical trials under-recruit. Our solution aligns with the existing solutions used by physicians, enabling them to recruit, educate and bring awareness to patients about the options available through clinical trials, reducing the recruitment bottleneck.”

An estimated 500 million patients interact with Outcome Health’s decision platform annually through routine physician visits. Features include digital tablets for waiting and exam rooms and interactive wallboards and monitors.

“Less than 5% of patients exposed to our technical platform participate in clinical trials,” said Butler. “With our new solution, digital content and information about possible clinical trials will appear while the patient is in the office. The physician can then explain clinical trial options to the patient. Potential trial participants can learn about opportunities, providing educational opportunities for the patient through the solution while meeting with their physician. Patient eligibility can also be confirmed at that time.”

Outcome Health, which formed in 2016, has worked closely with life science brands on commercial strategy for many years to improve business outcomes. As business has scaled and technologies have improved, the company has continued to identify new opportunities to deliver solutions for patients. Outcome Health’s new solution marks the first time digital technology has been used in the physician’s consultation room to bolster patient recruitment.

As part of the roll-out of the new solution, Outcome Health is collaborating with the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP) to strengthen the process for recruiting new patients for clinical trials. CISCRP, founded in 2003, is an independent nonprofit organization focused on providing the public—including patients, policy makers and researchers—with education and information about clinical research and trials. The educational content CISCRP produces is for use at clinical trial point-of-care campaigns.

“CISCRP’s role in this collaboration is to help provide educational content about clinical research and clinical trial participation to Outcome Health for use in their new digital platform,” said Rachel Minnick, senior manager, Marketing and Patient Engagement Alliances, CISCRP. “Our expectation and hope for the collaboration is to be able to reach more and more patients and their family members, at the point of care, to educate them about clinical research and clinical trial participation. This platform will help provide important education and information directly to patients and will empower them to make more informed decisions about their care.”

Part of the CISCRP mission is to offer a wide variety of resources, services and programs to assist stakeholders in clinical research in improving the understanding of patient and research attitudes and experiences and to increase the overall participation and satisfaction among volunteers.

“A big component of the solution is education,” said Outcome Health’s Butler. “CISCRP is a well-respected organization with a mission to improve health outcomes with information. They are an excellent platform for content distribution.”

CISCRP and Outcome Health have a shared commitment to providing educational resources to patients, researchers, physicians and policy makers that is engaging and leads to positive clinical trial outcomes. The new digital solution will enable physicians to better connect with patients at the point of care who may benefit from enrollment.

Butler said the new solution opens up several new avenues for patient education and engagement, as well as potential positive healthcare outcomes. “We want clinical sponsors to improve their ability to recruit. The new solution streamlines those opportunities and even helps to provide increased focus on individual disease states.”

By improving enrollment numbers, the speed of drug development and research should improve—and that’s a win for everyone. 

This article was reprinted from Volume 21, Issue 04, of CWWeekly, a leading clinical research industry newsletter providing expanded analysis on breaking news, study leads, trial results and more. Subscribe »