To end disease tomorrow, begin with trials today: Digital strategies for increased awareness of a clinical trials finder

Abstract

Introduction:Individuals experiencing different medical conditions, as well as healthy volunteers, may often be interested in trial participation, and researchers similarly need to find participants to advance medical knowledge. The ResearchMatch (RM) Trials Today clinical trial searching tool leverages data to enable potential participants to look for trial opportunities relevant to their situation. To facilitate expanded use of this tool, we undertook a national digital public awareness campaign to increase awareness of Trials Today among members of the general public.Methods:The awareness campaign promoted Trials Today using Facebook and digital banner messages in 2017, encompassing nine cities across the USA. The digital strategy was complemented by print media in several outlets. We employed descriptive statistics to summarize campaign metrics and site usage data during the campaign.Results:The campaign was successful in increasing visits to Trials Today, with 142,303 sessions logged during its run, as compared to pre-campaign data indicating 104,688 total sessions during the entire 2-year period since the site’s inception. The city-specific click-through rate for all digital impressions, combining Facebook and banner messaging, ranged from 0.50% to 1.09%, resulting in a cost-per-click range of $0.69–$1.15. In addition, visitors conducted 29,697 searches and viewed individual trial records 173,512 times.Conclusion:The public awareness campaign was successful in increasing use of the RM Trials Today clinical trial searching tool. Our findings support the value of digital media messaging as a cost-effective vehicle for promoting clinical trial awareness, especially for chronic ailments.

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“…To promote this tool, the RIC launched a national digital and print https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2021.841 campaign in 2017. 12 Integration between Trials Today and ResearchMatch allows volunteers to view research opportunities on a personalized ResearchMatch volunteer dashboard.…”

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“…Two site components were identified as posing a significant challenge to successful full-site translation. First, Trials Today at ResearchMatch [13], is a public-facing clinical trial search engine , and system-generated email messages (sign-up confirmation and study opportunity contact messages). Services also included copyediting and final proofreading by two or more translators.…”