Simplifying Patient Recruitment with OpenClinica’s Public URL Feature

Let’s face it. Patient recruitment for clinical trials is hard.

The statistics reinforce the patient recruitment challenge:

• 85 percent of all clinical trials do not recruit enough patients.¹
• 80 percent of clinical trials are delayed because of patient recruitment problems.¹
• 90 percent end up doubling the original trial timeline to meet enrollment goals.²
• Delayed clinical trials are costly. For sponsors of pharmaceutical trials, the estimated costs of delay range from $600,000 to $8 million per day.³

Simplifying Patient Recruitment with Public URL

Sobering statistics about the challenges of patient recruitment for clinical trials help to explain the strong interest in OpenClinica’s Public URL. One client, for example, chose OpenClinica to automate and accelerate patient screening and enrollment for its decentralized clinical trial. By combining OpenClinica’s Public URL feature with our automated study calendaring, they achieved a significantly higher level of efficiency. This allowed them to embed automated triggers, such as eligibility-based email notifications, to move the trial forward without the need for manual intervention.

OpenClinica’s Public URL functionality enabled our client’s decentralized clinical trial to automatically and efficiently:

1. Disqualify or move potential trial participants forward based on a pre-screening form.
2. Send each interested person an email alerting them to their status and next steps.
3. Add each person to the study database.
4. Enable trial participants to automatically schedule the next step via integrated study calendaring functionality.
5. Email compliant consent forms to officially enroll.

In the words of our client’s clinical trials leader,

With OpenClinica, we hit the enrollment targets faster while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden on our staff and strengthening patient engagement in our clinical trials. We were able to simplify and fast-track patient screening and enrollment, and likely patient retention too.”

Another client used OpenClinica’s Public URL functionality to enroll patients in a physician’s office via a QR code. Participants were automatically sent digital consent forms, and each time they returned to the physician’s office, easily they filled out study questionnaires via digital ePRO forms. For site staff, the use of a Public URL means they are freed up from the administrative burden of adding and screening participants and completing forms manually. For patients, the use of Public URL improved patient engagement and satisfaction.

To learn more about how OpenClinica strengthens patient engagement in clinical trials, click here.

To talk to someone from the OpenClinica team to see how you can leverage the public URL tool, click here.

SOURCES

1. BioPharma Dive. (2019). Decentralized Clinical Trials: Are We Ready to Make the Leap? Retrieved from https://www.biopharmadive.com/spons/decentralized-clinical-trials-are-we-ready-to-make-the-leap/546591/
2. Antidote. 25+ useful clinical trial recruitment statistics for better results. Retrieved from https://www.antidote.me/blog/25-useful-clinical-trial-recruitment-statistics-for-better-results
3. Lawrence, Bruce, Salberg, Edwards, Morales, Palm, Bernard. (2023). Quantitative assessment of the impact of standard agreement templates on multisite clinical trial start up time. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10565190/