Events like CORE, produced by Halloran and PLG, bring patients into the conversation, offering clinical research and development recommendations based on real-world experience.
One of the panels, Closing the Gap: Real-World Perspectives on Patient Recruitment & Engagement, featured Pranathi Perati, pancreatic cancer survivor who enrolled in multiple clinical trials, and Lance Nickens, Founder & President of The Patient Recruiting Agency, and Anthony Kinevsky, Vice President, Operations & Strategic Development, at The Patient Recruiting Agency, who shared candid perspectives on opportunities and challenges in clinical trial enrollment and engagement.
This like-minded community shares the vision that clinical trial research is essential for scientific advancement and drug development, offering new opportunities to support patients across various diseases. Since this research relies on patients’ willingness to participate, this session sought to amplify real-world experiences, offering opportunities to do things differently.
The strength held by Pranathi was deeply felt and acknowledged by the moderator, Trine Stougaard Bak, Director of Clinical Science and Trial Operations at Pharma IT (a PLG company), the panelists, and the members in the audience.
And so, the discussion began.
Taking a Big Leap – Enrolling in a Clinical Trial
Pranathi’s story is powerful – a molecular biologist and microbiologist by training, a mother and a wife, and battling pancreatic cancer since her diagnosis in 2016. At the time of her diagnosis, her cancer had progressed to stage two with a resectable tumor. Since 2020, she’s been fighting stage four, and miraculously, the cancer hasn’t progressed to her lungs.
Pranathi has finished two clinical trials, and is currently on her third, motivated by standard care alternatives, cutting-edge technology opportunities, and the ability to give back to the scientific community.
Since her first trial was a major unknown, Pranathi worked with her oncologist, asking them for recommendations, even asking about an add-on, such as immunotherapy. Sticking to what was comfortable at the time, she began with a well-known institution with a well-known care team to try out a new treatment.
While there were some surprises with the experimental treatment, she knew the care team, knew her oncologist, and the organization where the study was held, providing her with care and support throughout the entire process. The tremendous support from her family and surroundings cannot go unmentioned.
Building Trust in the Clinical Trial Process
Getting through the clinical unknowns and uncertainties requires significant effort from the patient, especially developing trust in the teams performing the research. Trust was a key message during this discussion – a major factor in her positive clinical trial experience. As Pranathi noted, she made an informed decision with her care team, and they walked alongside each other throughout the journey.
From this perspective, we heard from The Patient Recruiting Agency and their focus on patient outreach, supporting sites with tools and materials to engage in recruitment tactics that cut through the crowded messaging, all while developing trust and gaining credibility with patients.
Rethinking the Site Selection Process from a Patient’s Perspective
Patients are at the root of the clinical research and development industry, but too often, sponsors focus more time and energy on site selection and start-up, noted the speakers from The Patient Recruiting Agency. A key observation shared is that site selection and patient geography are often at odds. So, it’s critical that patient geography be a key factor in determining the site selection, alongside considerations of other potential enrollment challenges, such as nearby trials, ease of protocol, and more.
The speed-to-enrollment has a big impact on the success of the research, and at the heart of enrollment is the site staff – their engagement, tactics, and protocol training approach – that can make or break recruitment goals, noted by a few panelists.
As a cancer patient, for example, traveling far to a site is just sometimes not an option and is too burdensome. Geography was one of the most important factors propelling Pranathi’s decision to enroll in her first clinical trial. While the first trial wasn’t a success, it got her thinking beyond geography, and closer to the science behind additional options. Backed by further support from her care team and family, she found a better option in a subsequent trial, where she traveled across the country for treatment.
Her approach was science first, logistics second. As she noted, there are a lot of hurdles that geography will determine. But for patients without a science background, they may look at the geography, and corresponding financial and time commitment, and be deterred rather quickly. So, geography is not always the whole story.
Ultimately, Pranathi’s decision to travel and take a risk on this trial provided her with over two years of minimal side effects, living a more comfortable life.
For those without a science background, ask the tough questions with your care providers, engaging to understand the science behind the trials, widening the pool of treatment options.
Changing Just One Thing
The discussion ended with the question, “If you could change one practice tomorrow to improve the recruitment success, what would that be?”
Key responses included:
Questions about patient-centered recruitment and engagement approaches? Contact our team today. We’d love to hear from you.