Recruitment is an important step in the overall success of a clinical trial. Some clinical trials are ineffective or even fail because they don’t recruit the right participants or too many drop out before the trials are complete. The right automation can increase a company’s competitive advantage and even make the difference between a trial that fails and one that is successful.
Artificial intelligence, chatbots, and other types of advancing technologies are paving the way for greater efficiency in clinical trials. There are several benefits when using automation in clinical trial recruitment.
Automation saves time, money, and resources.
The recruitment phase for clinical trials is often a lengthy and extensive process. The recruitment process generally involves a lot of planning and organization of resources, data, and interaction with potential participants from a staff of coordinators. Carrying out all the steps necessary for successful clinical trial recruitment just to find the right people will cost most organizations an extensive amount of time, money, and resources.
- Storing data: Depending on how large the trial is, there is often a lot of data to compute, analyze, and store. Computer software programs and cloud management can help effectively manage and store data. Software may also help researchers and clinicians more effectively find and use the exact data they’re looking for.
- Improving participants’ experience: When potential patients for a trial respond to a web page, they will normally answer a variety of questions to find out if they’re a good fit. The traditional method of choosing participants would involve reviewing information from the website, extensively interviewing individuals, and then making an educated guess regarding which candidates would make the best participants in the trial. Using technology, a company can tailor specific messages on their website to attract the type of patients they’re looking for. This will save time, and ultimately money, by streamlining the process.
- Utilizing a chatbot: Implementing the right automation, and especially the right chatbot, can reduce the number of employees necessary to complete the recruitment process. Chatbots can effectively interview potential patients for each specific clinical trial. This can save an organization an enormous amount of money, time, and human resources.
Automation ensures tracking and compliance.
After an organization selects the best participants and the trial is underway, it’s necessary to track and evaluate the effectiveness of the selection process. Automation software can aid in this process, providing critical information that an organization can use for future recruitment. It’s also necessary to remain compliant with all laws and regulatory guidelines.
- Track and evaluate: Tracking and evaluation are critical components in clinical trial recruitment. Depending on the type of trial, the length, and the size, a trial might use anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 participants. When clinical coordinators must contact each individual through email or phone, this is often a long and extensive part of the trial. Support automation can simplify and shorten this process.
- Ensure compliance: Ensuring compliance and privacy for each potential patient is critical. It’s crucial to bring on board an automation platform with an experienced support team who can ethically maintain the information and data necessary for the recruitment process. Implementing advanced automation is one way that medications and treatment methods come to market in a quick yet ethical way.
Capacity’s partnership is an example of successful automation.
Capacity, an artificial intelligence support platform, recently came together with Citeline Connect, a clinical trial recruitment platform, to create a successful partnership in the field of advanced automation. Capacity, in a partnership with Citeline Connect, supports an automated platform for clinical trial recruitments. These companies came together to launch Moderna’s recruitment website with chatbot-powered artificial intelligence. This is helping customers such as Moderna create engaging websites that aid in clinical trial recruitment. This type of technology and excellence in automation is helping to provide relief from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another automation example is the use of chatbots. A chatbot is a specific type of automation that can save time and expedite the clinical trial recruitment process through guided conversation. Capacity’s advanced chatbot capability and expert support automation enable coordinators in clinical trials to easily complete the pre-screening process and registration. Chatbots help a coordinator pre-qualify potential leads by asking specific questions during initial conversations. A chatbot can also offer instant answers to frequently asked questions. This saves time by eliminating back-and-forth phone calls and emails.
Choose Capacity for automation.
Capacity is a support automation platform that can help automate repetitive tasks and answer questions by connecting your entire tech stack. David Karandish and Chris Sims brought together their technology talents and expertise to start Capacity in 2017.