Designing Trials Around the Full Patient Journey

In a recent video interview with Applied Clinical Trials, Heather Horville, solutions consultant, Greenphire, discussed the challenges of retention and trial timelines due to increasing financial and logistical burdens on patients. Horville highlighted strategies to address these issues, such as early planning, patient advocacy, and site selection based on local needs. For complex trials, engagement through diary entries and stipends, and human interaction via concierge services will be critical. Future improvements will emphasize a comprehensive patient journey, incorporating services like travel prepayment to enhance trial success.

ACT: Looking ahead, how might clinical operations as a function evolve to better support the patient experience and, by extension, trial success?

Horville: I think that it's going to be more and more important to consider the entire patient journey from start to finish, really focusing on their experience and designing engagement throughout the life of the trial, from the initial consent and what that experience is, all the way through to the final visit and that final data collection. I think that's really going to be key. A lot of in line of what we've already been speaking about, but I think it's also important for the folks, the sponsors, really conducting these trials, to plan for these services to be in play, to engage patients, incorporating what used to be known as nice to have services like reimbursement, stipends, and travel, as really a way to ensure that we retain our patients throughout the trial. We know that we should be speaking to advocacy groups, reimbursing patients, and prepaying for travel. We know this, but all of these things cost money, and the data shows that they are more and more crucial in successive trials, so streamlining these services, ensuring that we're considering the site's experience, like we mentioned before, and planning to have these services involved can really help shape trial success in the future. I think it's just going to be more and more important to do so.