In the past decade, trials have expanded to include wearables, cell and gene therapies, and more. While expansion is always thrilling, it also brings with it more complications. Clinical research has grown beyond life sciences businesses and clinical research organizations (CROs) to creative stakeholders, including clinical development consulting, digital therapies, and biotechs concentrating on digital therapeutics and biomarkers. The success of your trial depends on keeping participants engaged and on board. The success of your study will depend on how well you can work as a team with stakeholders. Collaboration is important to keep both patients and staff interested in a clinical trial and willing to take part in it. So, how do you encourage this sense of community? Keep reading to learn more.
Help patients and onsite staff feel like part of the team
Participants are typically inspired to participate in a trial as they feel like “giving back. Site employees are motivated by knowing their work will improve lives. Every interaction with patients and employees is a chance to establish a rapport among them. This might sound simple, but it’s challenging. Today’s mobile technology makes it easier than ever to share clinical research results with your team and patients, whether it’s patients and site personnel checking in before a clinic visit or the study team discussing trial milestones. Everyone participating in the at home clinical trials will receive updates from anywhere, on devices they are accustomed to and always carry on their devices; but most importantly, rather than receiving emails, they can connect, fostering that genuine sense of a team.
Keep everyone updated.
Strong teams have open lines of communication. To effectively explain and carry out the study, site staff benefits from being up-to-date on the most recent protocols. For patients, it’s important to know what to expect during clinic visits and to have faith in the trial process. One way to make it easier for people to talk to each other is to set up a central hub where research staff and participants can all access and share information. Whether it’s a critical protocol change or a routine progress-sharing exercise, you can update everyone participating in your project on a single platform.
Making face time count
Using the same technologies lets sponsors and CROs spend important time onsite with investigators and coordinators talking about scientific details, recruitment issues, and patient support initiatives. Relationships are everything during clinical trials. Thus, everyone wins when technology helps the relationship rather than hurting it.
Give patients a great experience,
A positive trial experience can result in patients having a greater appreciation for clinical research. Also, they are more likely to take part in another study and change how other patients feel, both those who are already in trials and those who are thinking about joining. Also, a web-based clinical trial platform that can be used on mobile devices can handle everything from consent to clinic visits, making daily tasks easier. So, clinic sessions are easy, interesting, and reassuring for patients, and they are interactive with a simple checklist. Videos and surveys can replace dry, detailed documentation. Also, patients and site staff can find the data they need, when they need it, using a dashboard that is known to them.
The future of trials is not in interpreting complex paper protocols and keeping stakeholder information in silos. Instead, it’s about using technology to make everything and everyone work together flawlessly. One outstanding trial team will be responsible for an outstanding trial experience.
