How to Use Real World Data to Maximize Patient Recruitment in DCTs
What is Real World Data?
According to the FDA, real-world data (RWD) is playing an increasingly important role throughout the healthcare and life sciences industries. RWD is any data relating to patient health status and/or the delivery of health care services. This data is collected from numerous sources including electronic health records, U.S. insurance claims, product and disease registries and, more recently, patient generated data either through self reporting methods or wearable/app data collection.
In the clinical trial space, RWD helps support research design, protocol and patient engagement goals. Perhaps the most immediate way clinical research leaders can harness the power of RWD is as a tool for optimized patient recruitment. In the simplest application, using RWD from patient populations can assist study leaders to better target the right demographic population in the right geographic locations for specific studies. For example, understanding which healthcare providers are servicing a particular set of disease indications can help sponsors and CROs determine their site strategy.
Consumer Modeling in Trial Recruiting
While leveraging RWD isn’t novel to study recruitment in general, new opportunities exist to apply resulting analytics for the growing area of decentralized clinical trials (DCT).
Consumer modeling using RWD can be used to build consumer profiles and determine how to best recruit ideal study participants. By connecting deidentified RWD to deidentified consumer data, clinical trial designers can run models that identify online research and purchase information for patients with a particular disease. The resulting consumer profile can inform digital advertising strategies that optimize recruitment messages and targeting.
Digital Patient Panels Empowers More Trial Flexibility
On a global level, DCT developers can harness the power of RWD by assembling digital patient panels that meet GDPR regulations and are aligned to study goals. Panels are queried on topics that help study designers identify best recruitment practices and protocol design input from people that might actually participate in the study. This level of RWD not only delivers input on geographic, message, and targeting criteria, but empowers more flexibility within the actual study design.
Listen to the entire discussion about how RWD can help drive better recruitment and deliver more successful clinical trials with THREAD’s John Reites and Trialbee’s Matt Walz.