The Case for Online Consumer Recruiting

The Case for Online Consumer Recruiting Over the past few years, recruiting for consumer healthcare market research has undergone a drastic change. In the past, pharma clients would take their business questions to their research vendors, who could easily leverage panel companies to fill the desired project samples and ultimately deliver successful insights back to their clients. As the industry has shifted its focus to oncologic conditions, rare diseases, orphan drugs and otherwise underserved populations, vendors are struggling to access these small, unique patient populations, resulting in partial, or even total, failures in fielding. I recently addressed [...]

Virtual Patient Engagement: Inspire and the NIH Clinical Center

Virtual Patient Engagement:  Inspire and the NIH Clinical Center Engagement with patients and caregivers is at the heart of Inspire’s community of cancer, chronic, and rare disease support groups.  While there are many ways Inspire can help the industry engage with a targeted patient population, virtual patient engagement  and authoritative expert content are central to that engagement.  For example, we recently conducted five webinars and started a new discussion post series called “Ask the Expert.” During these webinars and through the question-answer format of the “Ask the Expert” series, Inspire educates and engages members, [...]

Introducing Inspire Recruit

Introducing Inspire Recruit Commonly discussed statistics on patient enrollment and retention in clinical research paint a bleak picture. Clinical trial on-time completion rates are low--only around 20%. This is due in part to the fact that 85% of clinical trials fail to retain enough patients.1 The causes may lie in the low levels of knowledge about clinical trials. A recent survey found that only 19% of the public felt very informed about clinical trials.2 The actions of Inspire’s 1.3 million members reflect this uncertainty.  Searching Inspire for “clinical trials” yields over 50,000 unique discussions. “Looking for clinical [...]

Patient Engagement Leadership Series Part 2: Designing from the Patient Perspective

Patient Engagement Leadership Series Part 2: Designing from the Patient Perspective The patient perspective is based in the lived experience of illness.  Entering into patient-centered or patient informed medication development means understanding that this worldview cannot be provided independently by researchers or clinicians.1 At Sanofi, patient perspectives have been integrated into clinical trials for over seven years and for more than five years in research, according to Victoria DiBiaso, ‎Global Head Clinical Operations Strategy & Collaboration and her colleagues (Amy Ba, Patricia Roselle and Anthony Yanni).  “It’s been a truly transformative approach and has helped us make [...]

Patient Engagement Leadership Series Part 1: Clinical Trial Participants Are Medical Heroes

Patient Engagement Leadership Series Part 1:  Clinical Trial Participants Are Medical Heroes “I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.”  ~ Maya Angelou In Embracing the Patient Centric Culture, I discussed the paradigm shift facing healthcare. “Instead of doing things for or to the patient, now the goal must be empowering and working in partnership with the patient...to elevate the perspectives of patients and caregivers, incorporating their needs and priorities…. Building active listening to, or obtaining a continuous stream of insights from patients and caregivers into [...]

Diversity Initiatives? Are They Worth It?

Diversity Initiatives? Are They Worth It? When I asked audience members at a panel discussion during the inaugural Clinical Leader Forum, held in Philadelphia on May 10-11, 2017, three questions about diversity in clinical trials, I got some surprising answers. The questions were: How many attendees come from organizations that value diversity? How many come from organizations that prioritize diversity? How many attendees acknowledge their own personal biases that may impact their ability to effectively address diversification? Although many in the audience came from organizations that value diversity, there were fewer that came from organizations that are [...]

Research Confirms: Valuable Patient-Centered Data on Inspire (Part 2)

Research Confirms: Valuable Patient-Centered Data on Inspire (Part 2) In part 1, Can Patient-Generated Health Communication on the Internet Enhance Pharmacovigilance?, I shared the results of a think tank co-sponsored by the Drug Information Association (DIA) and the Cardiac Safety Research Consortium discussing the use of patient postings on social media for pharmacovigilance.  Today's post answers the question: Would Inspire’s patient-generated health discussions be useful for pharmacovigilance? Historically, pharmaceutical companies embraced a medication-focused approach to pharmacovigilance. Now, however, as R&D in the pharmaceutical industry is incorporating patient-centric methodologies in their processes, regulatory guidance is also transforming drug [...]

Can Patient-Generated Health Communication on the Internet Enhance Pharmacovigilance?

Can Patient-Generated Health Communication on the Internet Enhance Pharmacovigilance? (Part 1) Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions by health care providers has been the keystone of pharmacovigilance.  Yet health care providers tend to under-report for a variety of reasons including lack of time, complacency, indifference, fear of medico-legal consequences or their uncertainty of the causal relationship between medication and condition.1 An unexpected opportunity to supplement spontaneous provider reliant reporting may be at hand. Communication about personal health that occurs over the Internet could be a resource for pharmacovigilance.  In June 2016, a think tank co-sponsored by the [...]

Know Your Audience: 4 Tips for Creating Compelling Sponsored Content for Inspire

Know Your Audience: 4 Tips for Creating Compelling Sponsored Content for Inspire Sponsored content or native advertising is advertising that has been integrated into the publisher’s platform so that it does not disrupt the audience’s experience.  Unlike banner ads or other advertising, the character of the content matches the native content that the publisher’s audience expects.  It has the look and feel of that platform.  The result is an almost seamless flow of content for the audience. Creating content that is smooth and harmonious with native content can be challenging when regulations need to be [...]