Investors can help Provide the Necessary Funds to Ensure New Treatments are Developed

Types of organization that don’t always get much of a mention when it comes to the world of clinical trials are those that invest in biotech and pharma.

Without their funding the industry would almost certainly have fewer companies operating in clinical research – with a commensurate decrease in the number of trials and potential treatments that are being developed.

Investors in this space are obviously looking to make profits. But at the same time they’re providing the necessary cash injection that helps in the cycle of treatment development – with the obvious beneficial effects that can deliver for society as a whole.

My own involvement with investors is generally in an advisory capacity. Fundamentally, the biggest single issue for clinical research is patient recruitment – so investors want to know that the organization they are looking to invest in has an effective process in place for achieving that. Or, if they don’t currently, that one can be developed for them.

Outside of all the Problems the Clinical Research Industry can Get a Lot Right

If you ask ten different people within clinical research what the main problems are that are holding the industry back, you may get some consensus, but equally you could receive ten different responses.

What we can forget, though, while we’re focusing on the issues we’d like to change, is how much the industry gets right.

Without clinical research there would be hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of people around the world whose lives would be worse, or who simply wouldn’t be here.

I think it’s easy to forget from inside the industry how good an effect the results of research can have for improving people’s quality of life.

I’m not saying people involved in research should be resting on laurels or feeling pleased with their contribution, but I think it is worth a minute or two now and then to reflect on the positive impact that can be made when things do go as desired.

LinkedIn Content can be Informative and Entertaining at the Same Time

There’s a lot of communication that takes place on LinkedIn among people in the clinical research industry.

As is the nature of that platform, much of it is the corporate-style ‘here’s our latest product’, or ‘reach out to us if you need x’.

And there’s also a lot of good interaction that takes place – especially between some of the more engaged members of the community.

Recently, for example, someone within the industry posted an article about how they didn’t want to see ‘casual content’ memes posted on LinkedIn, suggesting they aren’t professional.

Certainly this method worked for generating lots of engagement on their post – some supportive and some critical of the viewpoint.

For myself, I think LinkedIn is a great place for putting across ideas and sharing information. And, while it’s not always my own approach, I see no problem with using humor and what might be considered unprofessional content in order to get a message across.

On John Lennon’s Birthday I Hope we can all Work Together for Better Results

9 October is John Lennon’s birthday, so today he would have been 83 years old. I’ve often heard people refer to his most famous song – Imagine – as a naive hippy dippy vision of utopia that only a wealthy person removed from real life could come up with.

And it is sometimes difficult to square the ideals put forward in that song with what we see happening around us.

Within the world of clinical trials, there’s a lot of talk about working together and everyone moving forward with the same goals and motivations. But again it’s not always all that easy to detect this kind of behavior in the wild.

Like myself, though, there are plenty of people who believe that coming together and collaborating with common purpose is the most effective approach we can adopt.

And if you work in clinical research, I hope that some day you’ll join us and help make the vision a reality.

Taking Notes and Keeping a Diary can be Useful for Sparking Ideas in the Future

One thing I’ve done a lot of over the years is take notes. Whether in meetings or at conference sessions, in webinars etc, I’ve always recorded the information and added my thoughts where possible at the time.

I’ve also on and off kept a diary, or journal, recording things that have happened – sometimes in longform with a lot of detail and extra color added. And sometimes – as I’m currently doing – a simple few sentences each day outlining activities I’ve undertaken.

It’s well-known that the act of writing in itself can be beneficial for helping absorb information. But I find the key thing is to go back through these notes and diaries at a future date, in order to help cement the details in my mind and spark new ideas.

It’s obvious that meeting notes can be good for this purpose, and I’m often also pleasantly surprised by ideas that can be generated through re-reading journal entries.

Using the Principles of Clarity and Conciseness in Short Videos

When putting together these short videos I’m keeping in mind the principles of clarity and being concise. Taking my cue from Jon Loomer (https://www.jonloomer.com/), who I got the idea from and who has now been posting at least one video every day for over a year, I’ve been sticking to a minute or less with each one.

At the speed I tend to talk, and with the subject matter I’m discussing, I’ve found this generally works out to be less than 160 words, made up of a maximum of around 1,000 characters.

So you can see where the clarity and conciseness has to come into play – things that potential trial participants probably wish were a bit more apparent in the type of consent forms they are often presented with.

For myself, I’ve found it easier to plan and write-up the video content beforehand, which helps to cut down on waffle and focus on being clear and succinct.

Incorporate a Wide Range of Relevant Solutions into your Patient Recruitment Strategy

There’s a saying that to a person with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Which is meant to suggest that if someone has only one particular tool at their disposal, they are likely to try to fix every problem using that tool as the solution – whether it is actually a good fit or not.

In the world of patient recruitment, there are many different approaches that can be taken, and lots of good solutions providers who can deliver good results.

And it is also true that not every clinical trial can be successfully recruited for using each of the different methods.

Certainly if I was going to suggest just one approach that is most likely to yield good results in the majority of cases, I’d recommend digital outreach.

But for a comprehensive strategy that gives you the best possible chance to succeed, you should look at using as many relevant solutions as are available.

All the Stakeholders in the Patient Recruitment Process should Collaborate for Better Results

Another aspect of collaboration that can deliver better outcomes is to have the various stakeholders in the patient recruitment and retention process working together.

I’ve often discussed how I’m an advocate for including patients and research sites when designing trial protocols.

And I would expand this to include having solutions providers also making a contribution, such that the trial sponsor benefits from the expertise of those who are ‘on the ground’ when it comes to trial operations and the recruiting and retaining of trial participants.

Taking this kind of holistic approach can be very useful for spotting potential issues and problems before they arise. For instance, based on their experience with previous trials, patients, sites, CROs and solutions providers can highlight areas that are likely to be detrimental to achieving the desired results.

So long as the approach adopted is truly collaborative, rather than combative, having multiple stakeholders working together can be very effective.

Solutions Providers Collaborating with Each Other is Unusual but Effective

Collaboration is a concept that is often discussed as being a good thing, but in my experience it’s rarely adopted as an approach for managing patient recruitment projects.

Understandably, vendors are keen to push their own solutions and remain in control of their client relationships. And it can seem counterintuitive to bring in a company that might be considered to be a rival organization, fearing the possibility of losing a client to a competitor.

But really, when done well, collaboration is about delivering the best service and achieving the best results.

It’s very unlikely that a ‘one stop shop’ organization is going to be ‘best in class’ for all the potential patient recruitment activities it’s worth undertaking. Some will be better at digital outreach, others better at engaging with health care professionals, others more skilled with traditional advertising methods.

Which is why having specialist organizations truly collaborating with each other can lead to greater success overall.

Approaching Things from a Different Angle can Lead to Good Results

Approaching problems from a different angle can often result in solutions you never anticipated when you set out in the first place.

For my recent book, for instance, I was intending to put together an overview of the problems faced within the clinical trials industry when it comes to recruiting and retaining patients.

And then the title occurred to me – The Patient Recruitment Conundrum – which sounded to me like the title of a thriller novel. (Of the type favored by say Robert Ludlum, or Frederick Forysth).

This led me to revising the whole structure of the book such that it became a story, and to the development of a central character who solves puzzles and is brought in to solve the puzzle of patient recruitment.

Many people have told me they’ve preferred this to it being in a standard textbook style. Which all came about due to approaching the problem from a different angle.