Enrolling subjects for a clinical study has been
a long time hurdles for the companies to test the efficiency of the drug. Not
only that in today's environment, there has been a bombardment of numerous
media vehicles which have a varied role in subject's (patients) senses,
thoughts and emotions.
These obstacles
for the enrollment of the trial subject can be achieved by Access, Desire and Respect.
Access:
Access is associated with how easy it is to
acquire something, and patients’ attention tends to veer towards the most
convenient engagement option. In clinical trial subject engagement, accessing patients is a crucial hurdle that study teams need to overcome in order to
reach and recruit patients, hence, determining the most appropriate medium to
implement engaging tools is key towards recruitment success.
Moreover, patients exhibit
familiarity and associate trust with healthcare professionals and related
environments, which attribute towards environmental familiarity and maximizing
engagement. Implementing engaging campaigns at physical locations, such as pharmacies, is one of many ways in
which study teams could access and engage patients, however, it is important
for study teams to understand patient behavior and geolocation in order to
access patients and yield favorable enrollment results.
Desire:
Desire is associated with addressing a need that
is felt as lacking. It is a subconscious effect that sometimes is the result of
having a need that has been missing for a long time, such as pain relief,
energy, and social acceptance. Scientifically, when the brain is
presented with stimuli that address these lacking needs, the brain reacts
immediately and positively by releasing dopamine.
While it is important to
attract a patient’s attention, it is important for study teams to not only
educate patients about the process of clinical trials, but also neither to
over-exaggerate the benefits of clinical trials nor make any promises or
guarantees.
For instance in a clinical study site,
where many campaigns with flyers that exhibited images of overly happy
people enjoying their lives. Unfortunately, these campaigns were misleading the
reality of patients who had high expectations of getting better by
participating in a clinical trial, but, were disappointed and chose not to
enroll during the consenting process when explained the risks and benefits of
the clinical trial; It was observed that patients were disappointed and they
felt that their trust was violated.
Study teams need to practice
caution by understanding their target audience and setting realistic
expectations by developing appropriate subject
recruitment content and training study staff on how to best present potential risks and benefits of clinical
trials.
Respect:
Respect is associated with the achievement of
shared goals, and the feeling is developed by recognizing and rewarding this
achievement. Scientifically, this behavior stems from the psychology of
reciprocity and mirroring, as people tend to follow those who set directives,
which fosters motivation and belonging.
Subject recruitment does not
stop at the patient; it particularly involves interactions at the study site,
and if study sites are not involved, subject enrollment initiatives fail. It was observed that there was a significant
relationship between medical chart review frequency and high enrollers. This
was achieved by conducting surveys and analytical assesments.
Training programs, Regular
communications and toolkits to engage study sites aided in better subject
enrollments
Clinical trials are highly
dynamic in nature, and each clinical trial requires specific expertise and customized campaigns to reach patients and engage study
sites. Simply implementing one solution towards all clinical trials will
not result in maximizing engagement and result in subject enrollment campaign
failure.
Reference:
www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com
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