According to the financial software for clinical trials company, Greenphire, oncology trials are difficult to recruit participants for as travel and location present key obstacles. The company added that studies show that 6% of adult cancer patients enroll in a clinical trial due to the lack of financial resources.
A spokesperson for Greenphire told us that 56% of patients cited travel as a prominent reason for not participating in a clinical trial, as their institution didn’t have a trial available. The spokesperson added that financial assistance can provide access to treatment by enabling patients to travel to trial sites.
Lazarex Cancer Foundation reimburses travel expenses which can be a significant financial burden for patients facing a life-threatening illness as well as assists in connecting patients to trials.
Through this partnership, Lazarex will use Greenphire’s ClinCard, a reloadable debit card, with no upfront costs required by the patients. The ClinCard, according to Greenphire, will enable instantaneous payment for travel to a research facility including any out-of-pocket expenses such as flights, lodging gas, parking and tolls.
ClinCard has been used in more than six million reimbursements to over one million clinical trial participants worldwide. The card can transfer funds from sponsors and contract research organization (CROs) to sites and patients.
Through the partnership, Lazarex said it will expand the amount of patients it can assist from 600 to 1,000 patients per month.
Dana Dornsife, president of Lazarex said in a statement that the organization has reimbursed patients out of pocket for 12 years through a paper checks and receipts.
She added that this has been a “very labor intensive” process and that through a partnership with Greenphire the organization can increase its bandwidth by having funds implemented immediately on ClinCard.
Greenphire has lent a hand in removing travel barriers in clinical trials previously as it began to work with Lyft earlier this year to provide ease of travel and reimbursement to study participants.