News

Taking a long term approach to improving vaccine trial recruitment

Dinah Knotts-Keeterle, VP Accellacare Site Network, and Nazneen Qureshi, Sr Director Accellacare Patient Recruitment, published in Journal for Clinical Studies

09 January, 2023 - The groundbreaking mRNA technology used in the COVID-19 vaccine has potential applications in preventing a number of other infectious diseases and is ushering in a wave of new vaccine development. At the time of writing, there are over 1,700 active vaccine trials found on clinicaltrials.gov. In our own practice at Accellacare, we’ve experienced a sharp increase in the number of vaccine trials we’re supporting; we estimate that we’re recruiting for 30 percent more trials today than in the pre-COVID era. Covid-19 also highlighted the need to increase diversity in clinical trials for equity and also to ensure that the vaccines have been tested in appropriate subgroups. This has heightened the need for finely tuned recruitment strategies. At the same time, the public’s experience with COVID-19 vaccines has led to a degree of “vaccine fatigue and hesitancy” that makes recruitment for vaccine trials challenging, over and above the growing competition for participants. There are, however, a number of strategies and tactics that have proven successful in reaching potential participants, educating them on the value of vaccine research, and motivating them to take part.

Home health webinar: Best practice and processes to build confidence in the value of in-home services

With Ashmee Bharadia, VP Accellacare In-Home Services

September, 2022 - In-home services are proving to be of true value in clinical research, improving patient recruitment by reducing patient burden and reaching more diverse patient populations. As we look to the future of clinical trials, shifting the paradigm to make them more patient centric and efficient, home-based services promise to be an important component in delivering on this mission. But not everyone is convinced. Investigators may be concerned about losing the relationship with the patient due to less face-to-face contact, site staff may be worried about dealing with changes in process and different technologies and internal study stakeholders may be tempted to revert to more traditional models.

In this webinar we explore the challenges and concerns of key stakeholders and how you can overcome these with tried and trusted methods to deliver the best experience and outcomes for patients, while keeping trials on-track.

Putting patients at the heart of clinical trials

Scott Palmese, Senior Director of Accellacare Site Network interviewed for Pharmafocus Talking Point

07 March, 2022 - At Accellacare, we ensure patient centricity in a number of ways. All of our solutions targeted toward sites and patients have the ultimate aim of making clinical trials easier on all parties, enabling faster and more effective delivery of research studies. At the end of the day, it is about providing options for patients to access trials, and giving sites the ability to operationalise those options.

In-Home Services: A patient-centric approach to improving recruitment and retention in clinical trials

Jodie Huddleston, Vice President Accellacare In-Home Services interviewed in Journal for Clinical Studies

14 December, 2021 - Advances in wearables, telemedicine and remote monitoring technology along with the convenience of in-home visits were bound to make decentralised and hybrid clinical trials standard with enough time. However, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated their adoption and now, even with the hope that the pandemic will soon be behind us, hybrid and decentralised models are poised to become viable solutions in clinical trial design because of their inherent agility, inclusivity and most importantly, patient centricity.

Recruiting patients to increase diversity & inclusion in clinical trials: one size does not fit all

Seth Nelson, Patient Recruitment Solutions interviewed in Pharmaphorum Deep Dive.

16 November, 2021 - More so now than ever, the inclusion of more diverse, and often more relevant, study populations is gathering momentum within the clinical trial community.

From calls for more diversity in age, gender, and ethnic groups, to more consideration for lifestyle and cultural differences, trials need to ensure they represent the key population of interest and identify a greater range of opportunities to maximise benefits for both patients and pharma

ICON announces the expansion of its Accellacare Site Network

New partnerships increase geographical footprint, supporting more access to patients and strengthening therapeutic capability

10 November, 2021 - The expansion of the Accellacare Site Network increases access and engagement with investigative sites and its patients, supporting faster recruitment and reducing the overall time and cost associated with drug development for customers.

Through these new partnerships, Accellacare is also enhancing its already-strong capability in the central nervous system (CNS) and immune-inflammation therapeutic areas.

Press release

ICON launches Accellacare

A global clinical research network focused on increasing patient recruitment with a patient centric approach

3 September, 2020 - Enhances ICON’s ability to offer customers integrated solutions of patient assessments at site and in-home for decentralised trials.

Accellacare is also achieving faster study start-up for its customers through efficiencies gained in central process management including budget and contracting, which can otherwise be a source of delay. This combined with a finely tuned feasibility approach ensures that the network can identify and recruit more patients to studies, in a wide range of therapeutic areas, in a shorter time frame.