Lisa Calderwood, MA
Senior Medical Writer
Recruiting patients on a timely basis for clinical
trials is a challenge. Traditional media, such as print ads
or television and radio spots, are designed to target desired demographics. But
a recent study finds that about 80%
of clinical trials fail to meet timelines for enrolling patients.
It’s no wonder, then, that patient recruitment service
providers and study sponsors are tapping into social media to
find eligible patients. After all, with about 1 billion people worldwide on
Facebook (1 in 7 people), the reach and immediacy of the network are
undeniable. Plus, ads can be more narrowly targeted to specific regions and
users than traditional media.
It
appears the social media patient recruitment trend is growing. A January 2013
report by Industry Standard Research (ISR)1 surveyed 104 patient
recruiting agencies globally about using social media to find eligible
patients. It revealed that:
·
17%
are avoiding or abandoning social media
·
17%
are aggressively using social media and are “rolling out the strategy to many
clinical trials”
·
67%
report their companies are either “evaluating” the strategy or
“testing” the strategy
Gaining traction from Facebook to
find emergency patients for trials
What happens when, say, a heart
attack patient in the ER is too ill and/or has no one to provide informed
consent for him to enroll in a trial on cardiac arrest? Well, there are
alternatives. This kind of study can be granted an Exception From Informed Consent
(EFIC). The EFIC guidelines—developed by the FDA and Department of Health and
Human Services (DHHS)—say that in specific circumstances patients can be
enrolled without informed consent, but the trial’s investigator and
institutional review boards must provide public disclosure and local community
consultation before recruiting patients. That usually has meant that EFIC
trials use town hall meetings, random phone dialing, and other traditional
outreach methods.
That may be changing. In a recent
article in MedPage Today, Chris Kaiser reviewed a study published
in Circulation, which compared using social media versus
traditional methods to comply with public disclosure requirements for EFIC
trials. The trials, conducted by the University of Alabama (UAB) School of
Medicine, placed targeted Facebook ads for studies related to cardiac arrest
and trauma. Those viewers who selected the ads were led to the study’s website.
The UAB authors provided a compelling cost/benefit analysis of their social
media campaign versus the use of community meetings for another EFIC
trial.
The Facebook campaign cost $1,000
and led to 5.1 million viewer hits ($0.0002 per view). That translated to 437
visitors to the study’s website ($2.29/visit). The traditional campaign cost
$8,000 for 39 community meetings, with 465 attendants at $17.24/person.
It’s
clear that social media not only has applications for finding eligible patients
able to provide informed consent, but also for gaining community support to
enroll patients for emergency research studies in which informed consent may
not be a viable option. The possibilities are intriguing!
AHE Clinical Trials has expertise in creating
engaging digital platforms and traditional media for your patient recruitment
campaigns, retention efforts, and patient education needs. Contact Brian
Schaechter, Director, Business Development,
Clinical Trial Market. Phone: 908-483-4241 E-mail: bschaechter@artcrafthealthed.com
1ISR Report. Social
Media: Best Practices and Strategic Use in Patient Recruitment, January
8, 2013. 104 global respondents.
Also see:
MedPage Today. Facebook May
Help Recruit for Cardiac Trials.
