Webinar: How to Increase Patient Engagement in Your Clinical Trials

Wednesday, June 28, 2023 | 11am – 12pm ET | 5 – 6pm CEST
Multimedia
Published on:
May 17, 2023

The current barriers to the success of clinical trials include difficulties in recruitment, low adherence to clinical trial protocols, high drop-out rates, and costly resubmission of protocols, all of which negatively impact a sponsor’s timeline and budget.

Engaging with patients, including their caregivers and advocates, is crucial during the planning and execution of clinical trials. Engaging patients during the development plan and creation of the trial protocol encourages in-trial feedback. In addition, it raises the likelihood that the patients will stay in the trial, understand their responsibilities, and adhere to the protocol requirements. Working in partnership with patients can ensure the impactful clinical benefit of treatments that address critical unmet patient needs prioritizing from the patient’s perspective.

How do sponsors and researchers engage patients in the development lifecycle and maximize their involvement in clinical trials? In this webinar hosted in partnership with the expert webinar platform Xtalks, our experts will share practical guidance on enabling patient engagement during the clinical research stage of drug development.

What you will learn:

  • How to properly inform patients who are considering participation in a clinical trial
  • How to properly include patient feedback in creating primary and secondary endpoints in a trial
  • How to investigate that clinical protocols address all patients’ symptoms in addition to addressing the primary need
  • How to co-create a protocol with patients and/or review it with them and incorporate their feedback
  • How to keep patients engaged after the trial ends for future data collection

In recent years, pharma and MedTech companies have become much more conscious of the role of patients in product development, including the potential of including their input in the clinical research stage. Patient, caregiver, and advocate insights can help sponsors and researchers plan and execute accessible clinical trials with more feasible protocols, improved inclusion/exclusion criteria, and meaningful endpoints. Involving the patients at this stage will ideally yield completed trials with more impactful results while saving time and financial resources. However, a lack of awareness, resources, and time to participate in patient engagement activities can negatively affect a company’s ability to benefit from patient input.

The goal of every patient and their family is to have access to successful treatments that fully address their medical needs with minimal invasion of their lives (time, pain, anxiety, etc.). Therefore, patients should work side by side with industry and regulators to ensure that new products satisfy the above characteristics.

Annabel de Maria

Annabel de Maria

Chief Patient Officer, Alira Health An industry pioneer in patient engagement, Annabel started her career in 1998 as part of the communications team at Pharmacia & Upjohn that launched Celebrex, Detrusitol, and Xalatan in Spain.

Prior to joining Alira Health in 2020, Annabel was Head of Media Relations Europe at Nestlé Purina, and before that was Head of Corporate Communications at Almirall. Her previous experience includes Patient Brand Manager for Viagra at Pfizer and for Levitra at Bayer, external communications lead for Novartis Spain, and patient strategy consultant for Lucentis, Pradaxa (Global Brand Team), and Champix (European Brand Team).

Annabel teaches patient engagement at the University of Bocconi, and she is the patient representative for the EULAR working group on autoinflammatory diseases. She has published two posters at ISPOR on the involvement of patients in the HTA process and one at EAACI on unmet patient needs in type 2 inflammatory diseases.
Giacomo Basadonna

Giacomo Basadonna

Chief Medical Officer, EVP of Regulatory Affairs, Alira Health With a background in transplant, general surgery, and immunology, Dr. Basadonna has worked closely with the NIAID/NIH for over 25 years, designing and executing clinical trials.

Dr. Basadonna is currently a Professor of Surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and a member of 23 national committees, 3 hospital committees, and 14 professional societies.

Prior to joining Alira Health, Dr. Basadonna held Chief Medical Officer positions at global companies, including Z-Medica, and his previous hospital appointments include UC Davis Medical Center, Yale New Haven Hospital, and UMass Memorial Hospital.

Over his career, he has secured 16 grants from businesses and governments, and his publications include over 80 abstracts, 13 limited dissertations, and over 100 publications in peer review journals. He is a sought-after speaker, presenting at over 80 major conferences.

Dr. Basadonna holds an MD and Ph.D. from the University of Milan.

Giulia Pierini

Associate Director, Consulting Patient Engagement, Alira Health Giulia Pierini joined Alira Health in 2018 after 4 years of experience in marketing and sales for big pharma and 2 years as a researcher in the Department of Cellular Biotechnology & Hematology of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

She gained knowledge about the pharmaceutical industry at Johnson & Johnson Medical and Bristol Myers Squibb, working in the neurosurgery, neurovascular, and cranio-maxilla facial fields, mainly in the operation room in direct contact with surgeons and patients.

She then transitioned to consulting and she has been involved in 20+ strategy projects in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry related to multiple therapeutic areas, including R&D, diagnostic, dialysis, respiratory, and oncology.

Having worked in the operation room for several years, she is a fierce supporter of the importance of the impact of business functions on patients’ lives.
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