Using websites and chatbots to perform outreach for clinical trials

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust clinical research into the mainstream spotlight, and placed a large magnifying glass over its many unique engagement and recruitment hurdles.

While transparency in clinical trials is the new buzzword, low awareness and falling enrollment rates, increased site and patient burden, and the continued lack of diversity in the participant pool means the industry still has many more challenges ahead.

So how can technology help overcome the new challenges in clinical trial recruitment and engagement?

KMWorld held a webinar with Karaline Venezia, Capacity and Elizabeth D'amato, Citeline Connect who discussed recent industry innovations like trial websites and chatbot AI that are combating the hurdles for patient engagement and retention.

According to a study by Capacity and Citeline Connect, 69% of participants said improving their quality of life was the number one factor in joining a study. The remaining 31% ranked the desire to help future patients as their number one reason to participating.

Respondents noted that they used a general internet search to gain information about a clinical trial they were interested in, Venezia and D’amato said.

However, potential participants using a general internet search land on a variety of websites, many of which are not intended for a participant or have educational materials with clear next steps available.

They recommended sponsors build a dedicated website to make trials accessible. They should adapt common digital experiences to create a single-source of trial information, write content that’s easy-to-read, built with simplified design, and have education added for reinforcement.

Venezia and D’amato suggested engaging participants via a conversational approach. This entails creating a knowledgebase for patient-appropriate and conversational support. This approach includes:

• Interactive application providing immediate and 24/7 support across websites
• Adoption and familiarity across multiple industries
• Navigate and match individuals to the right trial or trial information
• Answer frequently asked questions around diseases, processes, trials and more

D’amato noted that a biotech leading the charge against COVID-19 needed to educate, engage and enroll individuals across their trial portfolio. Support was required for a high-volume study recruiting multiple patient cohorts.

They deployed a patient-facing study website that included a ChatBot application to answer FAQs as well as triage and match individuals to the right study information.

The company was able to centralize and monitor enrollment activities in real-time to optimize and course correct as needed.

An archived on-demand replay of this webinar is available here.