Matching the right patient to the right trial remains the most challenging task in the success of any clinical trial. This Clinical Trials day, our partners WCG (WIRB-Copernicus Group) organized the first invite only roundtable to share how iConnect – our patient recruitment platform is helping meet some of the challenges of the clinical trials world. WCG is the world’s leading provider of solutions that improve the quality and efficiency of clinical research, enabling biopharmaceutical companies, CROs, and clinical research sites to accelerate the delivery of new therapies to patients while maintaining the highest standards of human subject protection.
Several key industry executives and folks from institutions like Pfizer and Celgene were invited for the discussion held at the Pierre Hotel in New York City on May 20th. The event discussed the ever challenging task of clinical trial patient recruitment and demonstrated the use of iConnect as a do it all patient recruitment platform that is setting out to answer today’s patient recruitment challenges.
To highlight a few features, iConnect allows researchers to use tools like patient facing pre-screeners to get the most out of their advertising efforts. It allows researchers to pre-screen their subjects, reducing time and effort involved in contacting each patient. In addition, iConnect allows researchers to create trackable campaigns and flyers and track their ROI on patient outreach activities. WCG projected iConnect as becoming the “Expedia” of the patient recruitment industry – connecting patients to appropriate clinical trials in a transparent manner.
This Executive Roundtable shared the progress to date of the iConnect platform, as well as the promising results for sponsors, institutional sites and patient volunteers. The event began with introductions from everyone in attendance and quickly jumped into discussions that were lead by Lisa La Luna – Senior VP, Corporate Development and Innovation at ePharmaSolutions and one of the founding members of ePharmaSolutions (ePS) – who hosted the day. Mahasweta Dutt, Associate Director for Clinical Research Operations at the University of Pennsylvania provided an insightful presentation on the impact iConnect has made on research awareness and recruitment at the world renowned academic medical center.
Brendan O’Neill, Senior Director, Patient Recruitment Programs, Pfizer also presented about their organization’s global implementation of iConnect and some of the challenges faced when organizing such a wide scale implementation. A full demonstration of iConnect was provided to a very interactive audience, followed by an active Q&A session from a panel of iConnect users that included David Wallach, Director of Regulatory Affairs at NYU; Deborah Howe, Director, Patient Recruitment, GCRDO, Celgene Corporation; Mahasweta Dutt, University of Pennsylvania, and Dr Sharib Khan, CEO of TrialX.
Dr Khan also talked about how we are helping in dissemination of information of latest research and clinical trials by means of our online radio talk show CureTalks.
The following video highlighting the importance of clinical trials participation, made by CISCRP and shown at the event gave a moment to the attendees in the room to take a step back and remind themselves about the value of their work in the clinical trials industry.
We express heartfelt gratitude to our partner WCG for organizing the event to help researchers and organizations realize the full potential of iConnect.
