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Clinical trial sites increasingly rely on digital media for patient recruitment, yet many fail to achieve the desired results.
FREMONT, CA: While the COVID-19 epidemic has temporarily halted many clinical trials worldwide, clinicians, pharma companies, and research groups are still exploring potentially lifesaving drugs and clinical approaches. Patients participating in clinical trials should access them easily, feel protected and be a part of the process.
Before starting this process, many elements must be considered, from pre-trial recruitment to initial engagement and onboarding to communication consistency and transparency. The pharma companies may prevent challenges with regulatory compliance, patient accessibility, high drop-out rates, and other variables that typically stall the development of these studies by better knowing what patients need and want from a clinical trial experience.
The virtue of patients: The patient's situation is likely the essential thing to consider while recruiting for clinical trials. Pharma companies must grasp what patients want to know before joining in a clinical study. Patient feedback indicates that knowing the trial's risks and benefits helps them make decisions. In addition, many patients struggle to follow medical recommendations due to a lack of health literacy. Pharma businesses must use straightforward language and evaluate their resources' reading level before using them in advertising. For marketing, enrollment, and retention, pharma companies must understand patients' opinions.
Completely recognize the advertising venues: The pharma companies must understand each platform’s advertising and message policies to recruit patients. While platforms such as Google and Facebook are frequently used to recruit trial participants, they also have stringent guidelines for this type of participation. Recruiters often encounter delays in ad clearance due to initial messaging that does not adhere to the platform's requirements. The pharma firms can avoid these delays by conducting thorough research on advertising policies and starting from there. Additionally to this best practice, they should have a well-defined process for analyzing trial results and correctly reporting outcomes.
Consider the Cornerstones of Clinical Trials: Compliance with informed consent processes, inclusion and exclusion criteria, proper and timely safety monitoring, adherence to protocol-mandated investigations and follow-up, and evaluation of regulatory documentation are all critical factors to monitor in all trials. There is substantial evidence that trial participants desire transparency, collaboration, and consistent engagement. One recent study demonstrates that patients wish to be informed about overall trial outcomes and the widespread use of their drugs following their investigation. The pharma companies must keep the following fundamental principles in mind when attempting to retain trial participants: