A Guide to Patient Outreach for Heart Disease Clinical Trials

February 19, 2020

In honor of American Heart Month, let’s take a look at how sponsors and CROs can optimize patient outreach strategies and boost recruitment for heart disease clinical trials.

February is American Heart Month, a time for Americans all over the nation to educate themselves on the dangers of heart disease. This condition is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States across sex, race, age, and ethnicity. In fact, heart disease is so common that someone dies from it every 37 seconds – that’s about 650,000 deaths per year.

With alarming statistics like this, it’s important for medical researchers to keep investigating the latest treatments. Clinical trials are an essential part of determining the effectiveness of heart disease medications, but enrollment challenges often put this work in jeopardy. In honor of American Heart Month, here are some ways sponsors and CROs can connect with patients interested in heart disease clinical trials.

Boost Trial Enrollment Using Social Media and PPC

Social media is a key way to reach users with a variety of health conditions, including heart disease. Facebook in particular boasts over 2.5 billion active users from every possible demographic. What’s more, Facebook has recently added preventive health capabilities to its platform specifically to raise awareness for heart disease. By targeting Facebook users, particularly those who already use the app’s preventive health tools, sponsors and CROs increase their likelihood of reaching a diverse group of people interested in heart disease treatment.

Sponsors and CROs should also consider updating their approach to pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns because of the recent changes that have been made to Google’s BERT algorithm. BERT is now better at catching nuances in speech, meaning sponsors and CROs will have to take a more targeted approach to PPC in order to show up next to organic results. In addition to staying up-to-date on the best-performing keywords and longtail phrases, sponsors and CROs should be careful to tailor their PPC strategies to match searcher intent.

Drawing in Heart Disease Patients with the Right Messaging

When it comes to digital patient outreach, so much emphasis is placed on numbers that the messaging behind the content often falls by the wayside. Targeted ads might catch a potential participant’s attention, but engaging copy is what reels them in and convinces them to enroll.

Sponsors and CROs can start by asking smart questions about their target audience – how old are they? Which demographics and social groups are being targeted? What are heart disease patients most concerned about in regard to their condition? The answers to these questions will determine the copy’s focus and tone. A/B testing multiple versions of the same copy will reveal which one is most effective and help sponsors and CROs connect more thoughtfully with potential patients.

Finally, it’s always important to keep patient centricity in mind. Taking the unique concerns and pain points of heart disease patients seriously and incorporating them into clinical trial materials goes a long way in establishing trust. If potential participants feel that their needs will be heard and met in a clinical trial, they’re more likely to enroll and adhere to trial requirements.

American Heart Month is a great time to reflect on the impact of heart disease and celebrate those who have survived it, as well as recognize that there’s still work to be done. With smart and innovative digital patient outreach strategies, sponsors and CROs can meet enrollment deadlines and continue fighting back against this serious disease.