The Challenge
Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) every year. Symptoms such as tremors, trouble moving or walking, dizziness or fainting, and more begin gradually and get worse over time. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, it’s uncommon to see Parkinson’s disease in people younger than 50, but for a small subset of sufferers, the disease strikes early. While people are diagnosed with Parkinson’s at an average age of 60, anything younger than 50 is considered young-onset Parkinson’s.
Treatments that reverse, stop, or slow down the progressive loss of neuron function in patients with Parkinson’s disease do not currently exist. That’s why Neuraly, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, developed an investigational drug to determine if it will slow down the progression of Parkinson’s disease. The challenge was that participants could not qualify for the study if they had already received treatment for their Parkinson’s. Due to this, patients with early or young-onset Parkinson’s were the desired demographic. However, the Parkinson’s Foundation estimates only four percent of people with PD are diagnosed before age 50, which meant there was an even smaller pool of people to consider for the study.
Clinically Media was contracted to take on this challenge by re-engaging research sites, managing and tracking their progress, redesigning the study website, and conducting Google Ads in order to enroll the study efficiently with high quality patients.
Additionally, even though Hispanic and Latinx communities have higher rates of Parkinson’s disease, they are often absent from clinical trials. In line with Clinically Media’s goals to improve diversity among clinical trial patient populations, we set out to recruit and retain patients that were appropriately reflective of the PD patients’ demographics. We connected with many local leaders in the Hispanic and Latinx communities who lead PD patient support groups; we translated printed and digital materials into Spanish; and we organized webinars for Hispanic and Latinx PD patients to learn about clinical research from doctors who spoke Spanish.
Additional Challenges
Study Stats
Clinically Media's Solution
Meticulous Approach
As with every new project, Clinically Media began by researching Parkinson’s disease and the patients affected. To further expand our knowledge and understand what these patients go through, the Clinically Media team attended multiple webinars including, “Life with young onset Parkinson’s” and “I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, now what?”. Clinically Media actively seeks out educational events to further understand the lives of patients.
In addition to learning from the Parkinson’s educational events, Clinically Media also analyzed the study’s past recruitment efforts, and talked to sites about their specific needs. With this meticulous approach and preparation, Clinically Media was able to establish and conduct the re-engagement campaign and Google Ads in order to enroll the study timely and effectively. Clinically Media adjusted advertising efforts when necessary based on the data gathered. By updating key elements such as keywords and phrases within the Google Ads, we avoided audience saturation and widened our target reach. Clinically Media was able to successfully meet the referral goals.
