Clinical trials face long delays and, in some cases, are even cancelled because too few subjects are enrolled. Sponsors and CROs have different recruitment strategies, from advertising through mainstream media (although this practice is not as widespread you’d think) to the use of mobile and digital applications. But, one of the most effective ways to recruit subjects could be through an electronic health record (EHR) system.
During a recent webinar, Penn Medicine’s Brian Wells discussed how the academic medical center has started (but hopes to do more) to recruit patients at the point-of-care using Epic, their EHR system. If a patient’s record matches up to specific trial inclusion criteria, an alert pops up, at which point the provider can talk to the patient about the trial. If a patient is interested, the provider can click a button that sends a message to the study coordinator, who can then connect with the patient, obtain consent, and enroll.
The ability to leverage EHR data for clinical trial recruitment seems like a no-brainer. Not only can it help boost enrollment; the ease of use can encourage participation from investigators, which has been a struggle for quite some time.
