Sites and sponsors are finding COVID-19 is having significant impact on their clinical research, particularly in the area of patient engagement. In a move designed to help trial teams increase patient convenience, Greenphire has added data-triggered payment functions and debit card delivery right to patients as part of its its ClinCard reimbursement solution.
According to Greenphire chief product officer Kyle Cunningham, the disruptions caused by the pandemic are creating an increased need for decentralized payment functions
"As the landscape for clinical trials evolves, we're beginning to see a need for remote payment capabilities. We heard from over 1,800 site personnel and over 80% said that providing a small payment following a virtual visit would improve the likelihood of participants staying in a clinical trial," he said.
“It's of utmost importance to keep clinical trials running in this uncertain time. As a company dedicated to removing barriers to both sites and patients, we're thrilled to offer these new capabilities for our ClinCard solution so that patients can stay engaged and enrolled in trials and sites can continue their critical work," Cunningham added.
Zach Hales, Greenphire product manager, said while decentralized trials and technology supporting remote research has been evolving in recent years, COVID-19 has pushed the industry to accelerate in that direction.
"Virtual or hybrid clinical trials have been talked about for some time, but today's pandemic has brought the digital trial format from a slowly emerging concept to an approach that can provide essential utility for patients and sites alike – especially during difficult times as we're experiencing today. Understanding this need, we advanced our product roadmap to help patients stay active in trials and enable sites to continue to collect vital data," Hales said.
With the data-triggered payment function, users can process payments in their office or remotely. The technology’s open-API design enables users to integrate with any data supporting event-driven scenarios, such as electronic data capture, clinical trial management software, clinical outcome assessments and more.
According to Greenphire, enabling remote reimbursement can help improve patient engagement, compliance and retention. The function is designed to enable users to complete payment in real time for pre-determined event schedules, without increasing administrative burdens at sites.
Additionally, ClinCard now enables sites to send debit cards directly to participant homes. It also allows expense reimbursement tracking, including notes for virtual receipts, to help streamline reimbursement.