Psoriasis patient recruitment for clinical trials
Need help accelerating your study?
Psoriasis patient recruitment for clinical trials
Need help accelerating your study?
With our in-depth understanding of psoriasis patients and data-driven outreach methods, informed by millions of screenings, we can ensure your psoriasis study’s success
Approximately 60% of people living with psoriasis report that the disease severely impacts their daily lives due to negative social attributes and stereotyping, yet many patients are not aware about the possibility to participate in clinical trials.
According to recent estimates of the World Psoriasis Day Consortium, approximately 125 million people around the world have psoriasis, which is estimated to be to 2-3 percent of the total population. At Clariness we have conducted several largescale international surveys and studies for Psoriasis, including a recent survey in 19 countries which results were published in the journal Dermatology and Therapy.
Overcoming challenges for psoriasis
One challenge in patient recruitment and screening for clinical trials for psoriasis is finding sufficient numbers of eligible patients. This is particularly challenging for more rarer forms of psoriasis such as Pustular psoriasis, Erythrodermic psoriasis and Inverse Psoriasis.
Furthermore, newer trial protocols often require more patients to have specific disease characteristics, such as severity or presence of comorbidities, which patients often are not aware themselves.
Digital methods are especially suited for psoriasis patient recruitment as a July 2022 study published in Dermatology Practical & Conceptual showed. Indeed, above all digital methods allow to reach a large number of potential participants who have shown interest in psoriasis related content and more so, were able to reach a more diverse and representative patient population.
A key challenge that the study identified was that many individuals who expressed interest in participation did not meet the inclusion criteria or were unable to commit to the study requirements after their first on-site visit.
For this reason it is crucial to on the one hand include patient friendly materials in any outreach campaign and on the other hand do a throughout pre-screener including a phone screener to also inform patients about the study procedures and potential benefits.
The importance of diversity in psoriasis patient recruitment
Psoriasis is unequally distributed across geographical regions; it is more frequent in high income countries and in regions with older populations. It appears to occur most commonly in populations of northern Europe (3,36) and least in populations of eastern Asia (37–45) Some studies investigated the ethnic differences in the prevalence of psoriasis. Psoriasis is found more frequently in white (3.6 percent) than in African American (1.9 percent) and Hispanic (1.6 percent) populations, yet this might also be because of underreporting and underrepresentation and for example there also might be differences in disease course and severity as was recently suggested by researchers in JAAD, the Journal of the American academy of dermatology.
As patient advocates from minority groups have argued, it is for this reason to both include specific outreach materials for minority population as well as possibly conduct studies specifically aimed towards these groups.
“I have scalp psoriasis, but many of the treatments for it are shampoos that you have to use every day. As an African American woman, I don’t wash my hair that frequently and over-washing my hair can cause dryness and breakage.”
Alisham Bridges, Patient advocate
As noted by Matthew Gavidia in The American Journal of Managed Care, it is crucial that clinical trial organizers focus more in including people from diverse backgrounds, especially in trials on new treatments for psoriasis such as biologic therapies.
“Black patients with psoriasis have been shown to be 69% less likely to receive biologic therapies. Current therapies for psoriasis are considered to be safe and effective for use in diverse ethnic groups, but a majority of the clinical trials that investigated these medications included mostly white cohorts.”
Our digital targeting techniques
We have four ways of targeting patients and caregivers when performing migraine patient recruitment or migraine patient surveys, and continuously review performance to optimize engagement and trial registrations.
Location targeting
Depending on location of the sites we reach patients who live nearby and who are likely to meet the criteria.
Interest-based targeting
Patients who search or engage (e.g., likes, shares, comments, etc.) for symptoms that are related to Psoriasis. In addition, at Clariness, we always place a high priority on the representativeness of our ads, especially for Psoriasis studies as these require individuals from diverse backgrounds to test efficacy.
Demographic targeting
Gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, and age are used as filters to identify patients (and their families and dependents) who are most likely to be participants in Psoriasis trials. Based on pre-screener data, this patient profile, which is used in outreach campaigns, is constantly updated. This allows us to target group-specific barriers, from lack of confidence in clinical science among minorities to distance to understanding the difficulties of participation and health literacy among older patients.
Behavioral targeting
We select the most cost-effective option from over 40 possible digital channels and reach out to our large ClinLife® database totaling 1.3 million users worldwide based on their location and study protocol inclusion and exclusion criteria. As a result of several large-scale surveys of individuals who have already participated in heart disease studies, we have a good understanding of the demographics and reasons for patients to participate in Psoriasis trials.
Are you designing a psoriasis clinical trial, or have one underway?
We can help you find the right patients, at the right time. To find out more about our psoriasis patient recruitment, contact us.