Optimising trial recruitment with our Primary Care Network

October 29, 2021

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Optimising trial recruitment with our Primary Care Network

Recruitment is a key part of Lindus Health's end-to-end model for trial delivery. A combination of the right channels can recruit for any study and massively boost recruitment rate, no matter the indication.

Our recruitment channels are social media, patient advocacy groups, and our Primary Care Network. In this blog post we'll explore how we work with primary care providers to turbocharge recruitment, as well as to help deliver decentralised trials.

What do we mean by Lindus Health’s Primary Care Network?

Primary care organisations are the first point of contact for most people seeking treatment for a health condition. They are embedded in the communities they serve and have strong relationships with their patients. So it's a shame that most primary care providers aren't set up to take part in even routine research!

Lindus Health has partnered with these organisations to help with just this. We bridge the gap between primary care organisations and trial sponsors to recruit trial participants representative of the population they are after. We also have deep relationships with a number of these organisations to provide trial delivery services directly to their communities.

What is the geographic reach of our Primary Care Network?

Lindus Health has a well-developed network in the UK and will be expanding this internationally in 2022 to cover Europe, the US and Asia.

In the UK, we have strategic partners in each of the major cities and so can cover most research sites. In total our network covers over 5 million patients!

The status quo in UK primary care

There is a nationwide commitment to do more research! “Research is a core part of the NHS...The NHS will do all it can to ensure that patients, from every part of England, are made aware of research that is of particular relevance to them” (NHS Constitution, 2021). But, the typically manual process for taking part in research doesn't make it easy.

Today, Clinical Research Networks provide research opportunities to GP groups but there is a lot of effort required to check their patient lists for eligible participants, and then subsequently communicate with select patients about the trial. Patients are missing out on innovative treatment options, made available through trials, because their doctor isn’t even aware of a certain trial.

That said, the number of UK patients taking part in health research and clinical studies is higher than ever. In 2020/21, in England alone there were nearly 1.4 million research participants (NIHR, 2021). People want to take part in research and primary care should be at the forefront of this!

What are the advantages of working with Lindus Health and our Primary Care Network?

Turbocharge recruitment. There are >5 million people in our Primary Care Network. We can identify participants who would not otherwise have been aware of research.
Greater patient diversity. By recruiting directly from the Primary Care Network you can reach a representative patient population, not just target patients who are in disease specific groups or who are being treated by leading disease specialists. The largest clinical trials and health research programs require everyday people – and primary care is best placed for this.
Go beyond recruitment. Primary care isn't just best placed to deliver trial recruitment, it can also be used to deliver most aspect of a trial in a cost-effective way that is more convenient for patients.

At Lindus Health we want to work with partners who are committed to our mission, to accelerate research for the next generation of health companies.