StudyProtocol.io
Streamlining Patient Recruitment for Clinical Trials

While leading his team at Wellness Clinical Research—a multi-specialty clinical research institute, Emmanuel Corvo witnessed the struggles associated with recruiting patients for trials and managing referrals firsthand. As a solution champion and tech visionary, Corvo set out to find an apt solution that could address the need. However, he observed that most patient recruitment and referral engagement practices in the market were considerably fragmented, and the available solutions were half-way completed. To put an end to these long-standing challenges, Corvo and his team built StudyProtocol.io—a modern, user-friendly platform for clinical research sites designed to manage and track referrals while engaging with them in the right way.

“The heart of our product is referrals. Apart from referring patients to clinical research sites, we provide them with a full system to track and manage referrals," mentions Corvo, CEO of StudyProtocol.io. Beyond patient referral, the platform also facilitates seamless subject payments and helps sites track them as well. Although StudyProtocol has the capability of provisioning debit cards, the company has also integrated a clinical trial management component in its platform, which allows sites to issue payments to subjects directly in their bank accounts.

Another key feature that adds immensely to the value proposition of StudyProtocol is the platform’s pre-screening suite. When it comes to pre-screening, patients have to follow a cumbersome process, wherein they have to visit the site to fill out trial-related forms, get their medical records verified, and provide their consent for the study. With StudyProtocol, research sites can now electronically send out medical release forms to patients in real time. Similarly, patients can provide their consent remotely from the convenience of their home, with which the sites can request for their medical records and complete the screening process. This feature has significantly contributed to the success of the platform in terms of increasing the number of referrals and patient enrollments.

StudyProtocol is widely utilized by research sites as well as pharmaceutical entities conducting clinical research to manage referrals efficiently and optimize recruitment budget. The platform makes it easier for sites and sponsors to input patient data and execute effective recruitment campaigns within any particular budget. In addition, StudyProtocol is incorporating additional features in its platform to help sites manage appointments and streamline scheduling processes while improving financial projections for campaigns.

We provide research sites with a full system to track and manage referrals

StudyProtocol leverages the power of AI to zero in on, engage, and encourage the right patient population to enroll for trials. “As we get ready to launch a recruiting campaign, we analyze a protocol, inclusion/ exclusion criteria, create an initial audience that matches the required characteristics for the trial, and target them with advertisements,” mentions Corvo. Upon assessing how people interact with an advertisement, the platform can adjust itself to target only the ones that are more likely to click on the ads. After establishing communication with a lead, research sites are provided with an option to mark them as 'good' or 'bad' lead to focus precisely on the people who qualify for the trial. "This allows us to filter the bad leads and target people who have similar characteristics and behavioral patterns to those who have been flagged as good leads and involve them in the study, which in turn, proves instrumental in strategically utilizing campaign budget," explains Corvo.

From a usage standpoint, unlike other offerings on the market that are rather convoluted with numerous redundant features, StudyProtocol as a whole is intuitive and “action-driven.” As such, clients can go up and running with the platform quickly, without having to receive any training on how to operate it. Illustrating StudyProtocol's capabilities further, Corvo recalls their engagement with a pharmaceutical sponsor that struggled with enrollments for a phase 3 study for IBD, given the condition is rare. They exhausted all their resources in finding referrals who qualify and even the physicians didn’t have patients to refer to. StudyProtocol came in and pitched a customized patient recruitment strategy, starting with just a few sites. The results were overwhelming for the clients. They were able to achieve all their enrollment goals on time and expand the study into all of the intended sites.

In little over a year since inception, StudyProtocol has grown four-fold and continues to be a highly sought-after referral solution among trial sponsors and research sites. Having carved a unique niche in the space, the company aims to broaden the scope of its platform by incorporating additional functionalities for sites to be able to organize studies in a more efficient way. Also, in an effort to save patients the hassle of carrying electronic diary devices, the company is working on a revolutionary solution for patient-reported outcomes with phone-based patient diary facility. The future looks bright and full of possibilities for StudyProtocol.