Earlier this month, ContextMedia became Outcome Health as the healthcare technology company made its foray into the clinical trial industry with the launch of its patient recruitment platform.
The new solution expands on the company’s “healthcare decision platform,” which includes a suite of waiting room and exam room digital tablets, wallboards, and monitors.
The platform streams digital content to help educate patients on various issues and is currently used by 200,000 physicians nationwide.
With the launch of Outcome Health, the company is moving this technology into both principal investigator and specialty physician sites to provide patients and doctors access to clinical trial information at “the right place and the right time,” Don Butler, Outcome Health’s senior vice president, R&D Life Sciences Solutions, told us at SCOPE Summit last week in Miami, Florida.
The clinical trial information is provided by sponsors – at a cost.
An age-old problem
Butler described patient recruitment as an “age-old problem," and according to a recent study by Tufts, poor communication between healthcare providers and clinical research professionals is contributing to low recruitment rates.
Physicians and nurses specifically cited the inability to access information, insufficient information, and time, as the main reasons for not referring patients to clinical trials.
By providing clinical trial content for physicians through its healthcare decision platform, Butler said the company has “changed the game for [physicians]; now the content is provided … its right there, at the right place in their dialogue where they want to introduce the clinical trial.”
"If we can make a little impact ... it will be significant for patients, for physicians, for sponsors, for our business,” he said while explaining that the industry was “ripe for disruption.”
Outcome Health has also partnered with The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP) to produce educational content. CISCRP was founded by Ken Getz, an associate professor and the director of Tufts CSDD.
“Our collaboration with Outcome Health stems from our shared commitment to engage patients as partners in the clinical research process,” Getz said. “We strongly support the model ‘education before participation.’ Outcome Health’s digital platform is an exciting way to apply this model directly to potential study volunteers at the point of care.”