SCOPE Summit 2026: Patient-Centered Strategy as a Driver of Recruitment and Retention

In a recent video interview with Applied Clinical Trials at the 2026 SCOPE Summit, Miriam Dervan, founder & CEO of mdgroup, discussed how treating patient experience as a strategic investment—rather than a supporting activity—fundamentally reshapes clinical operations. Dervan explained how early patient engagement influences trial design, recruitment, and retention, particularly in complex studies, and why operational teams must account for individual patient needs rather than one-size-fits-all solutions. Looking ahead, she argued that best-in-class patient experience will be defined by empathy, respect, and sustained commitment—recognizing patients not as data points, but as partners whose trust underpins successful clinical research.

Editor's note: This transcript is a lightly edited rendering of the original audio/video content. It may contain errors, informal language, or omissions as spoken in the original recording.

ACT: How can prioritizing patient support influence recruitment, retention, and day-to-day trial execution in a complex study environment?

Dervan: Yes, I mean, this is very complex, but it's very easy at the same time. Again, it's listening to the patient. Every patient is different within every trial.

So we have a lovely gentleman called Peter DiBiaso who works with us. He has Parkinson's disease, but he's at the early stage, so he wouldn't need, let's say, a car service or something like that to help him get to the site. But then you might have a patient who is on the later stage of Parkinson's disease, and they're in a wheelchair, and they do. And it's considering not just the trial—it's considering each patient in the trial.

So there is a group that we're aligning ourselves with, as an example, called The Patient View, and it's Kelly Franchetti. She's an amazing lady. And what they do—and I'm sure a lot of the CROs and the pharma companies are also looking at this—is she goes out to the patient advocacy groups for the particular protocol that, let's say, the sponsor is working on. And what they do is they look to see and hear from the patients: what exactly do they need to enroll in the study, and what do they need to retain in the study?

And that's a breath of fresh air, because you're thinking about the patient all the time. You know, like we do the logistics side—that, in itself, really helps the patient.

So I am also engaged with a patient called Sarah Woods. Sarah Woods has a rare disease, and now her son has the rare disease. Sarah had to drop out of a study, just as an example, because she's a single mom. So she works nine to five, Monday to Friday. She can't attend a clinic visit on a Wednesday at noon. So she said if she had known about services like the logistical side and all that, she would have stayed in the study, but she couldn't.

And she has now founded the Serenely Guided Foundation, which provides materials to the sites for them to give to the patients, to say, “This is what you can have, and it might help you.” Then to enroll—you might like to enroll and stay in the study.

So there's lots of support services out there which do need to be considered. But they are out there, and they can truly help enroll and retain patients in the study. We just need to look after them and care for them.

ACT: Looking ahead, what will distinguish “best-in-class” patient experience from basic patient-centric intent in clinical trials?

Dervan: I've been in the industry for nearly 40 years, and back then, when I started, we used to call patients “subjects.” We know that they have to have a number absolutely behind the subjects. And the numbers are people who are very scared and very frightened. They are people with the disease or the illness, and it's frightening for them and their families.

Patients who entrust us with their courage—we owe them our compassion and our empathy and, most of all, our respect. Clinical trials are not just data points. They are lives. They're stories. They're hopes. And they are cures.

If we forget about the patient, we forget why we are here. So if we care for the patient, the science will follow. And whatever—and whoever—sponsors follow that and care for the patient, they are the best in class.