Clinical Trials and Social Networking

Elaine Harris, Lisa Howe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

There are significant challenges facing the pharmaceutical and contract research organization (CRO) industries in relation to patient recruitment of clinical trials and the need to implement new strategies to finally overcome what has been called ‘the most difficult and challenging aspect of clinical trials.’

The phenomenal growth and utilization of online social networks has created a range of new opportunities for recruiting patients into clinical trials. Social networking is a valuable modern patient recruitment tool, which if designed and executed properly, has the potential to be a very effective method for generating pre-qualified patient referrals, targeting specific patient groups, and reducing costs.

The aim of this paper was to determine if this new social media innovation has been widely accepted by the pharmaceutical and CRO industry as a potential patient recruitment tool for clinical trials. The research has concluded that although there are vast recognized benefits to the use of social media for patient recruitment in clinical trials, there remains a hesitation within the pharmaceutical and CRO industry to fully embrace this new platform. It appears that until the issue of guidance from US Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities is received, the pharmaceutical and CRO industry will continue to follow the wait-and-see-approach, leaving a potentially significant patient recruitment method as an underused resource.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of GXP Compliance
Publication statusPublished - 2013

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