Clinical trials have been greatly impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, with the rapid establishment of new trials to study the disease, as well as the pausing or cessation of existing trials that now lack the resources. But beyond the pandemic, clinical research is facing consistent challenges in patient recruitment and retention. These struggles are particularly evident as the movement towards digitizing clinical trials grows momentum, and the issues that accompany it, such as concerns over the informed consent process and extra data security requirements.
What issues face recruitment?
There are several barriers to patient recruitment, including psychosocial factors such as fearing treatment change, or concerns over the opinions of social influencers (family and friends) in their lives. These barriers are most common, and are sensitive to the research context as well as vary across individual circumstances.
Other barriers to patient recruitment include system-level challenges, like a lack of appropriate trials for a given community, high patient burden, or insufficient infrastructure.
What issues face retention?
Retention is affected by similar issues, with patients less likely to stay enrolled through the entire course of a trial in cases of higher patient burden. This is particularly evident in studies with novel designs, such as those studying Parkinson’s Disease. Patient retention rates are most noticeably impacted by poor engagement efforts, and a lack of transparent communication. This is becoming a more prominent issue as communication is increasingly done online, which can often feel impersonal and be difficult to organize.
Where do we come in?
Citruslabs can help you improve both your recruitment and retention rates, in order to combat the modern issues facing clinical trials. We target recruitment challenges by educating patients about clinical trials as they use our network of health apps. An educated patient pool is vital to recruitment, and enables us to refer suitable and prepared patients to your study. We also encourage higher patient retention rates with our Citrus platform, which seamlessly incorporates communication into our patient portal in order to grant participants peace of mind, and allow you to keep communication with patients from all sources organized with just one click.
Need more information?
Citrus is a fully integrated recruitment and retention software that 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 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.
Still a little unsure? Check out what our customers have to say about us here.
And If you’d like to know more about how Citruslabs can help you recruit more effectively, get in touch with our team here.