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Maximising Patient
Retention in clinical trials

Centrally delivered practical and motivational support that augments direct site engagement to reduce participant attrition and maximize data robustness.

Patient dropouts are common and costly

0 %
of participants typically drop out of a clinical trial.
x 0
It costs roughly 3 times more to replace a trial participant who drops out than to recruit a new one due to the wasted time and resources.
A scene of two illustrated people, one views his phone from an armchair whilst the other views her phone from the sofa

Recruitment is hard enough… can you afford to lose enrolled participants?

Trial participants are real people with real lives and real challenges.

Deciding to join a trial is often a complex decision and enrolled participants are free to change their minds at any stage.

To maintain their commitment through the uncertain, potentially onerous, and often lengthy trial process, they need ongoing support and frequent reminders of their importance and value.

 

Site-level engagement is always important, but site staff are often overworked and unable to devote significant time and effort to this.

That’s why centrally delivered digital support with a ‘human touch’ can make a big difference to retention – and is vital for decentralized and hybrid trials.

Capabilities

Understand & monitor

  • Messaging framework
  • Social listening & engagement 
  • Live & weekly reporting 

Reach & engage

  • Retention collateral
  • Newsletter, text & email templates

Secure patient portal

  • Personalised patient engagement dashboard
  • eDiaries and ePROs for patients
  • Treatment & visit reminders
  • Patient newsletters and updates
  • Secure messaging
  • Site engagement functionality

Retention tactics help patients feel informed valued, and nurtured

By combining practical and motivational support, our retention tactics help patients feel informed, valued, and nurtured.   

Like our recruitment strategies, our recommendations for retention are always tailored to each trial.

For trials with small patient cohorts or limited duration, carefully crafted content – motivational messages, notes of appreciation, reminders, trial updates, lifestyle tips and requests for feedback can be delivered via a coordinated programme of emails or texts. These can be complemented by retention guides for sites.

For larger and longer trials, a dedicated patient portal enables participants to access a variety of educational materials on demand and connect with the trial team when needed.

Our patient portals bring together all participant communications in one place through a secure, easy to use, website and app.  Trial participants can access explanatory and motivational videos, facts and figures, animations, updates on trial progress and suggested links for further reading.

Motivational messages, milestone achievements, visit reminders and protocol responsibilities can be delivered across multiple channels, including texts, emails or app notifications, to suit participant preferences. Where appropriate, content aimed at caregivers may also be provided.

Enrolled trial participants are hard-won.

Talk to us about how best to safeguard your study population.