With patient recruitment costs accounting for nearly 25% of all clinical trial costs, engaging patients throughout the enrollment process is critical to managing the costs of trials. The expectations of trial participants are often not understood upfront, however; as patients move from pre-screening to screening and physical screening and beyond, demands on patient time and commitment increase.

As patients begin to realize the requirements for participating, they often withdraw from studies, creating delays in clinical trials and dramatically increasing the costs as new qualified participants are needed to replace those who have withdrawn.

Why participants drop out of clinical trials

Qualified patients often leave clinical trials as questions arise and the practical matters of participating begin to appear burdensome. In addition to the fear and anxiety that participating in a study can create, questions range from logistics to navigating the process and how to address the practical matters of interruptions to work and family, including:

How do I complete the forms?
Who do I call for my medical records?
How will I get time off from work?
How will I get transportation to appointments?
Who will pay for childcare if it’s needed?

Addressing patient concerns and providing answers to a myriad of questions can require significant staffing and training to ensure a positive experience for enrolled participants. After all, to have a patient drop out during enrollment will directly impact the trial’s ability to start on time and manage costs. Contract research organizations (CROs) and patient-recruitment vendors need to proactively engage patients throughout the enrollment process to ease the transition, set expectations and ensure that required tasks are completed and time commitments are met. They also need to be able to quickly, easily and reliably answer participant questions and cost effectively perform proactive outreach to align all parties for success.

Thirty percent of patients eventually drop out of clinical trials before they are completed. Moore TJ, Zhang H, Anderson G, Alexander GC, Estimated Costs of Pivotal Trials for Novel Therapeutic Agents Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, 2015–2016, JAMA Internal Medicine, Nov. 2018.

Addressing patient concerns and providing answers to a myriad of questions during enrollment can require significant staffing and training to ensure a positive experience for enrolled participants.

Virtual agents improve clinical trial enrollment

Virtual agents can significantly reduce the overhead required to support the enrollment process while proactively providing trial participants with the support and communication needed to make them comfortable moving forward.

Imagine if...

A participant received a reminder call to let them know that their consent forms still needed to be completed... and then was helped through the process of doing that.
Patients could call a phone number 24/7 to ask questions about the process and get answers.
Hospitals could be notified that a patient’s records still hadn’t been received and then receive information on where to send them.

This is exactly what a virtual agent can do, and more!

The Gridspace Grace virtual agent can perform automated outreach to patients and trial partners, to proactively provide reminders to ensure that tasks are completed on time, appointments are made and kept and questions are answered while alerting managers of issues and delays that may impact the trial.

Grace also eliminates the variability of relying on different people to communicate with participants and ensures consistent and compliant interactions. And, because Grace integrates with existing voice technology and data systems and leverages AI, voice technology can be interwoven with existing human workflows to maintain current processes.

Explore how Gridspace gives CROs and recruitment vendors a convenient, easy and thorough way to engage with patients throughout the enrollment process.

The Gridspace Grace virtual agent can perform automated outreach to patients and trial partners, to proactively provide reminders to ensure that tasks are completed on time, appointments are made and kept and questions are answered while alerting managers of issues and delays that may impact the trial.