Beating patient recruitment target with enhanced patient experience

Accellacare was awarded an osteoarthritis study by a large biotech organisation. The study required recruitment of 1200+ patients across 20+ sites and four countries. The challenge was ensuring a successful patient recruitment and retention strategy to meet sponsor given timelines. After consultation with the sponsor and reviewing the clinical trial environment in target countries, the team developed a plan to reinvent the patient journey by focusing on enhanced communication and support to deliver a first class patient experience.

The team took a step back to evaluate the most effective way to communicate with patients in this particular indication and encourage participation. They found inspiration in research by Nielson which shows that word of mouth recommendations are 92% more effective than all other forms of advertising. They decided to use this knowledge to maximise patient outreach and to facilitate patients being advocates of this trial.

The first step was to establish a Community Advisory Board (CAB) for consultation on local issues and creating a relationship with the community and clinical managers. This enabled a link for outreach on general education around the benefits of clinical trials. Free health screening events were then organised to increase awareness of this particular study to the potential patient pool.

A detailed patient journey plan was designed to ensure that the patient had a first class experience. This included assignment of a dedicated site based “Participant Agent” focused on creating a positive patient engagement from beginning to end. This holistic service included full support for the patient with benefits such as refreshments, concierge services and a specially designed relaxing area at site.

After 18 months, Accellacare observed a steep increase in awareness of clinical trials resulting in over 3,000 people expressing interest in clinical trial participation at just one of its sites in South Africa. This one site went on to become the highest enrolling location globally, tripling the number of patients originally projected for the site and beating performance at other sites. Developing a strong patient-centric strategy resulted in beating the sponsors patient recruitment expectations for that site.