Worldwide Clinical Trials’ Director of Global Patient Recruitment and Retention, Barbara Zupancic, will present “Improving Patient Engagement in Alzheimer’s Disease Trials” today at the Outsourcing in Clinical Trials (OCT) Southern California 2017 conference in La Jolla, CA. The presentation follows the challenge Worldwide Clinical Trials President and COO, Peter Benton, presented to drug sponsors at OCT New England on September 6, “Challenge CROs with 5 Tough Questions to Improve Partnership Value.”
Using Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) as an example, Zupancic will encourage Southern California’s most prominent biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies to ask their CRO partners: “What is your strategy to identify, engage and keep patients and caregivers interested in study participation and adherent with study procedures?” The discussion will reflect on four relevant themes for CROs to consider when embarking on AD studies to ensure value from the strategic partnership:
- Discussing Alzheimer’s disease to decipher complexities in clinical study recruitment efforts
- Evaluating the emotional and social needs of caregivers to determine how they color the patient experience
- Assessing whether it makes sense to use professional marketing techniques or if patients and caregivers are turned off by a study that appears too commercial
- Deciphering challenges of enrolling patients with mild cognitive impairment in the growing field of clinical research in earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease
Zupancic will carry the discussion further during another interactive session at OCT Nordics on October 10th, 2017 at 9:30am in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she will use the emerging opportunities in Orphan Disease drug development as an example to facilitate strategic opportunities for patient recruitment and engagement.
