Text messaging technology is widely used in consumer markets with immense success, and is now developing into a useful tool for the pharmaceutical industry, particularly within the clinical trials arena. With more than four billion mobile phone users estimated worldwide, this technology is an ideal means of communication. It can be applied successfully in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries as a form of direct communication with clinical trial subjects.
This article will discuss traditional methods of patient recruitment and retention during clinical trials, and how integrated mobile phone technology can overcome some of the issues associated with these conventional methods. The article will also examine the growth of text messaging technology in the pharmaceutical industry, and the regulatory and patient security issues which need to be addressed. Finally, we will look at the future development of mobile phone communication technology within the pharmaceutical industry.
RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
The success of clinical trials is directly related to finding high quality volunteers and patients, which can be extremely challenging. Traditional methods of clinical trial recruitment, such as physician referral, have a very low success rate. One popular method of recruitment is advertising, used in a wide range of environments such as universities, hospitals, clinics and in the media. Some organisations prefer to contact potential participants via letter, inviting them to take part in possible future studies; however this can be a slow and time-consuming process. During the recruitment drive, traditional methods can be helpful; however, they all require the subject to take the first step. Ultimately, many good volunteers simply never find out about clinical trial opportunities.
Patient non-compliance is another challenge for clinical trials that costs the pharmaceutical industry billions of dollars each year in lost patients. As a result, overcoming patient noncompliance is an increasingly important issue. Patient compliance can be improved through a number of methods, including targeted patient recruitment, the use of electronic diaries throughout the study, and communicating reminders directly to patients. However, significant costs can be incurred by sending out reminder letters or making telephone calls to subjects to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the study. In addition, while these methods can improve patient compliance and retention, they do not require interaction from the patient, and there is a chance that patients may fail to respond to reminders.
Many large pharmaceutical sponsors are now implementing text messaging technology as part of their clinical trials communication strategies. This offers unique benefits to clinical trials organisers, and can help to improve patient recruitment and retention significantly. The technology is being used for subject recruitment, communicating with patients and collecting trial data. Text message alerts are a quick, easy and effective way of communicating, as all mobile phones have built-in text messaging capability. New electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) developments are also emerging. These enable clinical trials patients to complete diary questionnaires using their own mobile phones, which significantly improves data capture.
