Patient recruitment provider Acurian hopes the popularity of MySpace and Facebook will transfer to the clinical trial industry with its new social networking application, Click it Forward.

The new free application, which users can add to their existing Facebook and MySpace pages, is designed to promote clinical research and volunteering in clinical trials, as well as help grow Acurian’s existing database of individuals who have opted to receive information on clinical trial opportunities.

“Social networking is an ideal environment for promoting clinical trial awareness and increasing Acurian’s direct-to-patient recruitment capabilities,” said Acurian’s vice president of marketing Scott Connor in a company release. “Facebook and MySpace together have nearly 200 million registered users, and we believe that Click it Forward plays well to these online audiences based on the application’s healthcare and altruistic characteristics.”

Users can also gain points to raise money for more than 20 medical causes by inviting online friends to install the Click it Forward application to their own Facebook and MySpace pages,. The more points a user amasses, the more money Acurian will donate to the user’s preferred medical causes (selected upon registration).