In order to combat low recruitment rates and poor engagement, many clinical research sites are making the switch to using Virtual CRO’s. These shifts make sense given the boom of technological and medical advancements in the last few decades, and virtual clinical trial companies are becoming a more streamlined and cost-effective way to deliver clinical trials.
Citruslabs is beginning to operate virtual clinical trials in addition to our work as a patient recruitment software, and as we’ve explored previously on the blog, this allows us to achieve even greater patient engagement and tailor our work to the individual needs of your research. Today, we’ll look into some of the ways this new approach to clinical trials can boost patient engagement.
Virtual clinical trials often result in better patient engagement due simply to the increased convenience for patients. These trials are often decentralized, meaning there is usually no need for participants to travel to a brick-and-mortar clinical research site in order to take part in clinical trials. This not only reduces patient burden by saving them time and travel expenses, but also eliminates the need to schedule their daily lives around their participation. As such, more patients are likely to enroll in these kinds of trials and are more likely to participate in the full length of the trial. Engagement will naturally be higher because it is much less of a commitment for patients to stay connected throughout the duration of the study.
Further, these kinds of trials are significantly more accessible to people for whom leaving the house for non-essential medical research might not be possible or worth the effort. People with chronic or rare illnesses who are unable to travel far from home can now participate in the vital work undergone by virtual clinical trials, from the safety and convenience of their own homes.
In some cases, medical teams are even able to make house visits to perform necessary medical evaluations and collect data for the trial, and this can be scheduled around the patients’ needs in order to avoid major life disruptions or significant changes in their routines.
The virtual clinical trial experience can offer convenience as well as increased access to a broader medical team located across a wider area, which might not be possible in centralized trials.
In a recent clinical trial for which we acted as the Virtual CRO, one patient, Annaleigh, reported feeling grateful for the ease with which she was able to engage in research.
“I had waited so long to suit a trial near me, with my other obligations it just isn’t realistic for me to travel. Now though, Citruslabs paired me with a trial that was actually taking place a few states over, and I got to participate in something I never would have been able to otherwise,” she said, “Their team is just fantastic, so communicative and really treats you like a human being, not just another number on a screen. It felt great to be valued that way and to feel like even from just the beginning of the recruitment process, I had a whole team rallying behind me.”
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In addition to reporting clinical trial news and stories from within the patient community, we operate Citrus, a fully integrated recruitment and retention software. Citrus fits any clinical trial and simplifies the implementation of patient engagement in your clinical trial. Whether you are already working with CTMS systems or not, Citrus is the perfect add-on to make patient interaction effective.
Since 2015, our team has been hard at work raising awareness of clinical trials across the globe. A Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ company and a graduate of the renowned Techstar program in New York, Citruslabs is at the forefront of patient recruitment and retention technologies. With over 3 million patients now recorded on our databases, our patient recruitment dashboard is fast becoming the most efficient method of trial recruitment.
Now a #1 health app in 17 countries, our Mindmate app is helping to revolutionize the way we think about healthcare. Mindmate “[takes] senior care into the digital age” (Forbes, 2018) by providing people with the cognitive decline the essential tools to help them rebuild and maintain strong mental health. Trusted by millions of users, our health community continues to grow as the content available expands to the needs of individuals today.
With more than 200 research sites now using the Citrus platform to screen thousands of patients every month, researchers are now well on their way to finding new treatments for hundreds of different health conditions - something that just would not be possible without a technological solution. Make sure that your clinical trial is in the lucky 12% and turn that luck into guaranteed results with Citrus.