Why Now Is the Time To Evaluate New Clinical Trial Technology

Whether your trial isn’t starting for six months or has already started, assessing new solutions and adopting best practices through automation can streamline your operations and improve patient retention.

When speaking with clients, we sometimes hear: “Sounds interesting, but call back in six months when our clinical trial starts.”

If your company’s clinical trial is starting several months down the road, you may think that now isn’t the time to research new technology solutions or services to enhance your trial.

Now is the perfect time to consider whether proven technology solutions are worth your investment, and here’s why:

1. You won’t have the time later. When your trial is closer to launch, you’ll be busy. Your hands will be full preparing for services needed to accomplish protocol requirements, and that includes lining up a slew of other vendors, including your CRO, central lab, ECG provider, EDC provider, IRT provider, IRB and more. At this point in the trial, you won’t have time to strategically identify opportunities for improvement and evaluate new services to really add value to the overall trial. With more lead time, you’ll have the time to do your homework and get out of the rut of doing what you’ve always done.
2. You’ll need time to create buy in. Once you’ve identified a potential vendor, completed demo’s and selected your provider, it takes time to create excitement, build advocacy and formulate a business case more broadly. Educating stakeholders and completing internal vendor management processes can be lengthy, and rightfully so. It’s essential
   for companies to adequately evaluate new vendors to assess risk and complete contracting procedures. Don’t underestimate the time that this can take and be sure to work with a proven partner who can help you navigate this process based on successes within the industry.
3. Automation solutions will help you recruit (or enroll) sites. Research sites prefer to work with sponsors that look for ways to optimize their performance. However, with upwards of 20 passwords to remember (on average), sites may be skeptical of adding another system to use. That’s why it’s essential to build in time to educate sites and showcase the new tools available exclusively through your partnership that can help them recruit and retain patients and streamline their operations. With such a competitive site selection environment, you’ll want to ensure that patients and sites have the best possible experience. For example, if a site can increase convenience by offering real- time, automated payments along with transportation options, participants will likely be more inclined to enroll in the study – these technologies provide an added benefit for the site as well, eliminating the burden of manual workflows that take away from patient care.

Implementing New Technology on Existing Trials

If you thought that implementing new technology can only happen at the outset of a trial, that’s not necessarily the case.

One way to determine if your trial could benefit from adding a patient convenience or site payments solution is reviewing your trial’s enrollment data. For example, if you are 12 months into a 24-month trial, but only at 30% enrollment, adding a service such as patient reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs or Rideshare via Lyft for patient travel can help with enrollment and bolster retention. Assessing trial performance can reveal the need to act, potentially trying new tools that have been proven to deliver reliable results.

Kick the Tires: Contact Greenphire Today

Adding new solutions to your clinical trial either at the outset or midway through a trial can give your study a competitive advantage. If you are interested in exploring new solutions to improve patient convenience and site satisfaction, contact Greenphire for a demo today.