e-Patient Recruitment in Emerging Markets

Patient recruitment costs 32% of the total clinical trial cost, which is highest among all the cost centers. Almost 80% of clinical trials are delayed due to patient recruitment challenges. This delay adds on to the cost of maintaining staff and site and shortening the patent period. So, the clinical trial is moving towards two major shifts - Shift from Patient recruitment to patient engagement and Shift from site centric patient recruitment to patient centric recruitment. Rising era of patient engagement brings the need of e-recruitment. This article focuses on changing recruitment trends within emerging markets. Introduction Global use of digital and social media in clinical trials began after 2010. North America and Western Europe provides comparatively conducive environment for the growth of e-recruitment. In emerging markets regulatory and cultural issues limits the use of e-recruitment methods. Among emerging markets Latin America is a fairly good clinical trial market to use e-recruitment methods. The below table portrays both the traditional and the emerging methods used for e-recruitment. The usage of the type of methods varies between developed and emerging markets. For E.g. Due to regulatory concerns, emerging markets use PRO/CRO databases rather than ads whereas in developed markets such as North America and Western Europe, search engines are preferred. Taking into consideration the emerging e-recruitment methods, digital platforms of patient advocacy groups and patient databases contribute to greater than 70% of usage in emerging markets whereas on the other hand, social media platform is more preferred in developed markets. Author: Nandini Nema