Call 4 Health offers the patient engagement that can make the difference
How the recent past influences our future
It sounds a bit unlikely now, but patients have not always had a seat at the table in terms of research into their care. We’ve come a long way from 1988, when activists from ACT UP chained themselves to a fence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of an orchestrated publicity campaign to demand patients had access to the risks and benefits of research and regulations. Research has only recently grown to recognize the crucial role of patient engagement with organizations like the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative.
The foundational work of the HIV/AIDS community, and later breast cancer organizations, demonstrated the powerful impact of the patient voice and led to patient groups taking an increasingly active role in the clinical trials enterprise. The conclusion being that patient engagement is vital to the success of a clinical trial. Effectively incorporating patient engagement has been shown to boost both clinical trial enrollment and retention rates.
Prior to 2007, no best practices for engagement existed beyond the unspecified recommendations like the use of “good communication” or the direction to “be trustworthy and transparent in relationships.” The fact is that patient group interests, capabilities, and assets very greatly, as do sponsor cultures, perceptions of value, and the processes for establishing productive clinical trial partnerships. This often resulted in a lack of clarity surrounding how to optimize relationships and best capture the patient voice in clinical trials. Who should be engaged? When should they be engaged? In what capacity?
Engagement can be complex and should avoid conflict or interest or the promotion of investigational products. These are aspects of engagement that have vexed regulators, patient organizations, and sponsors alike.
The building blocks of transparency
Across all groups – sponsors, academics, regulators, and patients – the primary goal of clinical trials is to more rapidly answer research questions and deliver safe, effective treatment to patients. This makes patient engagement beyond crucial. And it is basically just making note of the patient’s insights and experiences, desires and preferences, through a collaborative relationship. Which is why Call 4 Health provides live call handling seven days a week by healthcare professionals trained specifically for patient recruitment, pre-screening, and retention.
Higher patient engagement equates to more accurate targeted product profiles, more correct screening of patients being recruited for the correct trials, and more products being developed that better meet the needs of patients. Call 4 Health is staffed by health professionals with more than 20 years of experience in clinical trial design, execution, and management. We have healthcare operators for patient recruitment, pre-screening , and retention programs.
Why experienced-based knowledge matters
Researchers working with more efficiently screened patients receive the benefit of experience-based knowledge which can guide clinical research toward the actual needs of patients. This directly leads to transparency and trust in the research. Patient engagement also leads to the democratization of research processes and patient empowerment.
It is enormously important to increase the accessibility of clinical trials to patients. Their involvement only leads to superior and more widely applicable research. Consider the current debate over the COVID-19 vaccine. The more transparent the patient experience, the more the public will be likely to accept the results, rather than listen to conspiracy theories about what is in it or why it is being administered.
Doubts and obstacles can be eliminated with the implementation of Call 4 Health’s combination of recruitment specialists and study-specific recruitment criteria. They screen potential participants for entry into their clients’ studies and ensure patients can more easily stay informed about active trials that are right for them.
What Call 4 Health brings to the table
Call 4 Health provides a single call center to help detect the issues that impact all sites (such as problems with protocol or adherence to study protocol or enrollment issues, etc.). We provide outbound intervention services to improve compliance and retention, have centralized recruiting, reporting, and site monitoring, and provide an automated pre-screening for basic objective information. The data collected by our call center can provide valuable information about recruitment methods, protocol design issues, and more, saving the client substantial costs.
Call 4 Health invites you to contact us today to learn even more about our recruitment and retention through medical call center services!
Founded after a personal, heart-wrenching incident more than 20 years ago, Call 4 Health has gone from solely offering after-hours answering services to being a top-rated, complete communications BPO for healthcare facilities throughout the country.
