By Deborah Borfitz

July 28, 2008 | A public awareness campaign that depicts clinical trial volunteers as medical champions has been shown to improve patient enrollment rates by 38 percent or more in six markets where Eli Lilly recently test-marketed the multimedia program.

So reports Diane Simmons, president and CEO of the Massachusetts-based Center for Information & Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP). The “Everyday Heroes” campaign was co-developed by CISCRP with Fast4wD Ogilvy, the study recruitment arm of international advertising and marketing firm Ogilvy & Mather.

The program -- inclusive of five print ads, four radio spots, and one television spot --shows how people of different ages, races, and occupations can contribute to medical research, says Simmons. A phone number (877-MED-HERO) and website (www.medhero.org), where viewers can learn more about the clinical research process are also provided.

In six markets where Lilly ran the campaign -- in conjunction with standard recruitment ads -- response rates were 38 percent better than in 12 other markets where only the recruitment ads were used, says Simmons. On the second go-round with another trial in the same markets, the response rate more than doubled.

Widespread public distrust of the research process has helped reduce trial participation to abysmal levels across most therapeutic categories. The intent of the Everyday Heroes campaign is to “reposition the way the world looks at [trial] volunteers,” says Simmons. “To really have impact, dissemination of the campaign must be on a national scale with over 120 million impressions per quarter, and that is dependent on contributions from all of the clinical research stakeholders -- pharmaceutical companies, CROs [clinical research organizations], academic medical centers, government agencies, disease advocacy groups, hospitals, community health centers, and individual contributors.”

Education is the “important step before participation,” she continues. To that end, CISCRP has spent the past few years developing general educational brochures and customized versions of the same for African-American and Hispanic populations. Educational DVDs have also been produced, most recently disease-specific ones focused on conditions such as diabetes and cancer.

These educational tools are accessible via the CISCRP website, together with “101 facts and figures” about clinical research, says Simmons. The site will soon get a social networking component.

“With all of the information about clinical research that is available online, what the public wants most can be difficult to find,” says Simmons. These findings prompted the development of CISCRP’s free public service (www.SearchClinicalTrials.org). The listing currently pulls from multiple public registries and excludes duplicate entries. “It’s like the Google of clinical trials.” The service has about 250,000 unique users per year, which is expected to grow exponentially to better meet the need for trial volunteers.

The non-profit, founded in 2003 by Kenneth Getz, has already gifted four U.S. cities – Boston, Indianapolis, Dallas, and Philadelphia -- with an annual Aware-for-All Clinical Research Education Day, says Simmons. The event takes place on “neutral turf” and brings together all key stakeholders to raise public awareness of trials while helping professionals in the clinical research enterprise “look at the world through the public’s eyes.”

Invitations to attend come from dozens of organizational partners, such as churches and YMCAs, who CISCRP supplies with educational materials. Based on exit surveys, 75 percent of consumers are more willing to participate in trials after attending the program, says Simmons. “These are not recruitment fairs.” They “put a human face on the people who volunteer for clinical trials while increasing public understanding of the risks and benefits of participating.”

Simmons adds that this form of outreach is needed in many more communities. “It’s time to say ‘thank you’ to the millions of people globally who give the gift of participation each year, and to stay committed to educating, informing, and empowering the public about what it means to be an active participant in the clinical research process.”

Related story:
Is U.S. Patient Recruitment a ‘Losing Proposition’?

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