MDS Pharma Services

MDS Pharma Services is the world’s premier provider of innovative drug discovery and development solutions. With more than 3,000 employees globally, MDS Pharma Services applies advanced scientific and technological expertise from lead optimization, pre-IND research, early clinical research and bioanalysis through to global clinical development, central lab and centralized cardiac services. www. mdsps.com.

MDS Pharma Services has study locations worldwide, including an early stage development clinic in Belfast, UK. The Belfast clinic carries out a wide range of studies including Phase I studies testing new drugs in healthy human subjects. As MDS Pharma Services is a clinical research organization (CRO), the company has recruitment targets to meet, often on a short deadline, and must find and dose participants as quickly as possible. In 2006 MDS Pharma Services’ Belfast clinic began to experience challenges with its existing methods of subject recruitment and communication. As a result of these issues the CRO looked to Exco InTouch to improve these areas through implementing mobile phone technology.

The Challenge

Finding good quality participants and patients for a clinical study can be extremely challenging and directly affects the success of an entire clinical program. Although physician referral has traditionally been a common form of participant recruitment for clinical trials, consumer advertising and direct subject contact are fast becoming the most effective methods.

Typically for Phase I studies, MDS Pharma Services requires an average of 30 dosed participants per study; however to achieve this target 300 potential participants are often initially contacted. MDS Pharma Services traditionally used a proprietary database to find potentially appropriate participants and then sent letters to each one and awaited a response. As the company’s target population is largely composed of university students and other young people, MDS Pharma Services found that the potential participants’ postal addresses often changed, making successful contact by post difficult. In addition, MDS Pharma Services found that awaiting a response from a potential participant to be a lengthy process and so began to investigate alternative forms of participant recruitment and communication. MDS Pharma Services initially approached Exco InTouch for an alternative mobile phone-based solution based on the company's reputation for delivering effective patient communication solutions.

The Solution

MDS Pharma Services uses Exco InTouch’s participant communication technology for Phase I studies at its Belfast clinic. The CRO initially approached Exco InTouch to manage a number of recruitment campaigns. These preliminary campaigns involved sending simple text messages to MDS Pharma Services’ database of potential participants. Initial outreach was focused on a study requiring up to 1700 potential participants, and as response rates soared it was discovered that the MDS Pharma Services call centre system could be modified to increase productivity.

Exco InTouch then implemented two strategies: first, the initial outreach was staggered to include up to 400 potential participants at one time, enabling MDS Pharma Services’ response system to manage responses from interested volunteers. Secondly, Exco InTouch developed a two-way recruitment strategy to allow participants to demonstrate interest via text message rather than telephoning the call centre. This enables MDS Pharma Services to analyze the profiles of interested participants and easily measure response rates against study targets and deadlines

In addition to the patient recruitment strategies, MDS Pharma Services has also implemented Exco InTouch’s compliance-based technology, InTouch Clinical, which enables the CRO to send timed medication and visit reminders, reducing lost-to-follow-up. If participants no longer want to take part in the study, they can easily text ‘NO’ when receiving communication from MDS Pharma Services, reducing the time that MDS Pharma Services spends on soliciting responses and ultimately improving the quality of trial results.

The Results

Using outreach via mobile phone, MDS Pharma Services has seen typical response rates of 50-60%; these participants are then screened and some may be lost during this process. In addition, use of InTouch Clinical has reduced lost-to-follow-up and early withdrawal from the studies by over 20%.

Through using Exco InTouch’s technology for recruitment, MDS Pharma Services can also overcome any potential issues that arise during the trial. For example, during a recent study, MDS Pharma Services found that all suitable participants failed the blood test stage during screening. In order to keep to the deadline, the company needed to find 50 new suitable participants instantly, a feat which would not have been possible using paper-based methods or even email. However, by sending out a mass communication via text message, MDS Pharma Services was able to quickly find new participants in order to meet the study deadline. Exco InTouch has found that most people, and students in particular, carry their personal mobile phone at all times, ensuring that responses are extremely fast when using text message communication for recruitment. Participants tend to respond to a text message, but are less likely to respond or follow-up a phone call from an unknown number.

Conclusion

Following the success of Exco InTouch's technology for its database recruitment campaigns, MDS Pharma Services now also implements text messaging into its recruitment advertising campaigns, using short codes to elicit responses from new, interested participants (for example, "We are currently running trials in your area. For more information, text TRIAL to 12345"). Exco InTouch's technology is fully customizable and can be used as a standalone solution or integrated into existing strategies to improve recruitment rates.

What Next?

How can we help your study to succeed?

To read more success stories please view our selection on the right.

When you feel you have all the information you need then let us review your draft protocol and/or provide a quote and a proposal. We can even show you a live demo so you can witness first hand the benefits of Exco InTouch's solutions.

Kick off only takes two hours and we do nearly all the work. We mandate the adoption of the tool, whereas you only need to invest one man day of effort from start to finish. We will train and provide eLearning, allowing you rest easier because the subject and site compliance is not left to chance.

To book a demo, request a quote or speak to an Exco InTouch expert, please contact us.