Patients are essential to medical research, but research protocols tend to overlook their perspective. Increasing patient centricity requires that the patient’s experience is prioritized.
Antidote conducted an online survey to understand better the needs and wants of patients at the start of their clinical trials. We asked 145 people with different medical conditions, including those who had participated in clinical trials before or who expressed an interest in doing so. We wanted to know which platforms patients used to find trials and what information they needed to make an informed decision about participation. These findings have important implications for how clinical operations teams share information about trial listings. What we learned:
What patients need to know about clinical trials
Patients can find out about clinical trials through online advertisements or their searches. Of the patients we interviewed, 41% said they learned about clinical trials from online search listings. This data is consistent with a larger study conducted by CISCRP, in which 67% said they learned about online clinical trial listings.
Clinicaltrials.gov receives 215 million views per month. Our clinical trial tool, Match(tm), can be found on over 300 partner sites, including advocacy groups, patient communities, and health portals.
What patients expect from clinical trial listings
Patients are clearly searching online for clinical trials, but they have also expressed frustration with the lack of details provided by many trial listings. When asked, “What information would you find most helpful as you researched trial options?” nearly 30% of patients said they needed more information about the procedures or drugs that were being tested. Meanwhile, 25% stated that time commitment information would be useful as they considered a particular trial. Other details that were of interest to patients included information about past trials and post-trial access to drugs (15%).
In a question similar to the CISCRP survey mentioned above, respondents were asked to list information that they thought could be included in clinical trial marketing in order to increase their trust in sponsor companies. People were most interested in the risks and benefits of the study drug and the research done so far. They also wanted to know if the sponsor company was actively pursuing Patient-centric Research Design.
How do we create digital ads that are patient-centric?
According to the data we gathered through our survey and additional information, providing patients with the information they desire can positively impact patient-centricity. Here are some ways in which study sponsors can incorporate this strategy into their own clinical trials advertisements:
Contact clinical trial recruitment agencies.
Recruitment agencies for clinical trials are a valuable resource to research sponsors looking to better connect with their patients. The company can use the information provided by the recruitment agency to create messaging, imagery, and targeted targeting to help attract patients.
Work with patient advocate groups.
Patient advocacy groups are often in constant communication with their patients and have valuable insight into how they will respond to different messages. Working with such an organization or a recruitment company that has this kind of partner relationship can give valuable context to the language that a target population may prefer.
A major obstacle to clinical trial enrollment can be getting patients to see your study listing and feel that they are equipped with enough information to make the first screening step.
