This week on the Citruslabs blog, we’ve introduced the importance of patient engagement for clinical trials by looking at its underlying principles. The four ‘E’s (explore, explain, elevate, and evolve) are among the newest developments in patient engagement strategy discussed on the channel. Today, it’s time to take a deeper look into the technologies currently available that allow research sites to, one, follow a more patient-centric approach and, two, engage patients successfully.
Choosing the right technology for your patients
With the innovation of technology for clinical trials constantly evolving, researchers may be able to improve the efficiency and productivity of clinical studies while decreasing patient burden and increasing patient engagement and retention. Choosing the right technology for your patients depends on your clinical trial set up; not to mention the study’s current infrastructure and its ability to integrate the new technology within this process.
Virtual visits
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s become very clear that virtual studies, including virtual visits, have had a major boost in activity with trials being forced to work remotely. Virtual visits reduce the burden on patients and can be a great source of increasing patient engagement remotely. Even though many trials are not yet set up for a 100% virtual approach of the study, more and more studies are going for a combination of streamlining in-person visits and virtual visits.
Patient portals
Creating a portal for your patients not only allows candidates to receive valuable information about the clinical trial and their health condition, which ultimately creates transparency, but also serves as a communication hub to strengthen the patient-researcher relationship. What’s more, patients can also track their health in real-time, which improves adherence. According to the Senior Clinical Strategist at Get Real Health, Jennifer Dunphy, being able to digitally track patients’ health through a patient portal is beneficial for research sites as “their clinical team can see how the subject is reacting to the drug in real-time, which is a huge benefit. They are then able to respond and intervene if a subject is experiencing adverse events.” By having a centralized portal with patients' data, research sites will also be able to reduce their workload.
mHealth apps
Clinical trial sponsors, CROs, and research sites everywhere are now recognizing the benefits of integrating digital medical devices into their clinical studies. This patient-centric solution allows CROs to conduct home-based (virtual) trials to improve patient adherence by removing extra burden for the patients. Ultimately, the demand for apps used for diabetes management, sleep apnea, and cardiac monitoring is on the increase.
Enhancing your patient engagement with Citruslabs
Here at Citruslabs, we've created the ideal patient recruitment dashboard to help any researcher improve their current metrics. With over 3 million patients on record, we ensure research sites are connected to a thoroughly educated and engaged pool of participants; so, it is no wonder why we have such high patient confidence! Now, we would say that other models are available - but this would be a lie. In fact, unlike that offered by other patient recruitment companies, our easy-to-use dashboard is the first-of-its-kind for the market; giving researchers a unique insight into their patients’ wants and needs via industry-leading technology. The future of clinical recruitment starts here.
