Driving Clinical Trial Recruitment Through a Targeted HCP Omnichannel Approach

Over the last decade, the life sciences industry has used digital advertising at an increasing rate to engage with patients throughout the drug development life cycle. From creating disease state awareness, to driving drug adherence, the trend particularly accelerated during 2020 and 2021, as pharmaceutical brands looked for ways to stay engaged with their patients and targeted audiences.

But while digital channels like paid social, search, and display advertising are undeniably powerful resources for reaching patients, direct-to-consumer audiences are not the only application for targeted media.

Investigators are Searching Online Too

Much like a consumer, HCPs are increasingly present online and in social media. In fact, according to recent data, 46% of physicians check social media for personal reasons more than three times a day. Additionally, HCPs in Emerging Markets are the most active social media users with 63% checking social media more than three times a day.¹

With this reality, why aren’t more life sciences organizations taking advantage of the incredible ability to target potential clinical trial Investigators who could have a positive impact on their clinical trial recruitment efforts through programmatic media?

An Omnichannel Approach Means a Personalized Approach

We already know that reaching the right Investigators – and getting their attention– can be challenging.  At any given time, multiple pharmaceutical companies may be conducting trials for drugs with similar clinical indications, others looking for KOLs and speakers to help promote their products—all competing for the most active physicians’ attention. Brands need to make it easy for potential Investigators to see how clinical trial participation is immediately relevant and valuable to them and their patients’ health.

Taking an omnichannel approach to clinical trial recruitment for Investigators can help brands reach sites with timely clinical content and updates by meeting Investigators “where they are”. However, many pharmaceutical brands lack the ability or resources to apply insights from real-world data (RWD) to assist in their recruitment efforts in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Ensuring that you are engaging with the most relevant Investigators can help reduce timelines and reduce many months of unsuccessful recruiting efforts because the right information was not available when the decision was being made.

RWD Reveals Investigator Insights to Drive More Efficient Recruitment Efforts

During the clinical trial stage of drug development, there are many benefits to understanding the relationships between potential Investigators, the level of trial experience the Investigator has, the SDOH patient dynamics within their practice (race/ethnicity/income) and any potential HCP referrals or influencers within their network(s). Any of these factors could help significantly accelerate the patient recruitment process and reduce upstream inefficiencies.

With HealthNexus, an on-demand, self-serve RWD platform, brands can define and target Investigators (or HCPs) to support their recruiting efforts, and any other communication efforts to support the brand’s strategies. Leveraging RWD assists in engaging with the most appropriate Investigators guarantees that they are treating and involved with the right patients that match the recruitment criteria, and that their practices are growing and qualified to handle the trial.

A 3-step Sequence to Recruiting with a Focus on Diversity in Trials

As discussed, HealthNexus can help precisely identify Investigator segments based on the clinical profile of the patients they are treating who match the inclusion criteria for their clinical trials, but often, that criteria alone are not enough. 

Diversity within clinical trials has now become a clear mandate in which to enhance recruitment efforts, and therefore, clients must look for new data assets to expand their lens of the patient and Investigator landscape.

With HealthNexus, brands can:

1. Generate “community of color” Investigator maps that allow users to refine segments based on therapeutic areas, social determinants of health (SDoH), and other factors for their patient base
2. From the maps, select targeted Investigators based on Diversity criteria to generate targeted HCP/Investigator audience segments to send to demand-side platforms (DSPs) and publishers to run targeted awareness campaigns for Investigators that match their criteria.
3. Similarly, consumer-modeled audiences can be created from RWD, aligned to the treating Investigators, and leveraged for recruiting in programmatic media. By leveraging Uber Health activation, brand-eligible patients who have likely been treated by Investigators can be recruited for clinical trials.

Through the integration of SDOH data and RWD, a true omnichannel approach can be achieved to ensure recruitment resources are being used efficiently to successfully recruit for clinical trials, while maximizing and integrating important data elements such as the race and ethnicity.

HealthNexus has been readily adopted and integrated into the clinical workstream by numerous Top Pharma organizations to ensure there is a documented approach to incorporating clinical trial diversity throughout the design, planning and execution process of their clinical trials.

Connecting with PurpleLab and Our Network of DSPs with Trusted Insights is Instant

Working with PurpleLab and HealthNexus data is simple! Our self-serve analytics platform can be up and running within days so that you can be creating custom audience profiles for potential study patients or Investigators in minutes. From there, activation is as few as three clicks away for any HealthNexus user, allowing them to ship their audience data to publishers, media agencies, and programmatic platforms.

Within HealthNexus’ existing connections to DSPs and publishers – through Uber Health – life sciences marketers can seamlessly execute activations to improve outcomes for clinical activities and future marketing efforts.

Contact PurpleLab today and see a demo of how our dynamic RWD platform can help you identify those patients and Investigators for your condition of interest and learn how HealthNexus platform is transforming how sponsors are gaining insights during their planning processes and saving time and money.

1 Sermo “Meet the Social Savvy Physician” n=604