Embracing the Power of Multimedia Communication Campaigns in Clinical Trials

I've been working in digital healthcare for many years. As a product manager in the clinical trial industry, my work is driven by the broadly insufficient technical access and support that research staff have available to them on studies.

This industry requires significant efficiency and quality yet is widely recognized as particularly slow to embrace new technology. As a “tech-savvy” professional working in software, I'm fortunate to have my pick of problems to solve and ample tech solutions to utilize in the process. We can coordinate a feature from ideation to rollout across numerous teams, with everything tracked, current and referenceable on useful platforms and systems.

Conversely, research staff on clinical trials must reckon with the full weight of the industry’s digital immaturity. The protocol, bible of the trial, is a heavy tome they need to physically locate during patient appointments, usually away from clinical spaces. Questions for a CRA? Researchers wait days or longer for answers as their queries are routed through numerous, disparate channels.

Current and anticipated technologies have great potential to truly accelerate the scope of clinical trial operation models. Harnessing “design thinking” to build solutions that are intuitive and user-centric removes barriers, enhances speed and safety, and improves integrity and compliance. I want to share with you what myself and the rest of the Teckro team have been working on to lead the fray in this area.

Digitally Interconnected Network

When a clinical trial is digitally interconnected, a network of opportunity and efficiency is created. At Teckro, we know that study operations augmented with digital content and communication strategies can accelerate and streamline clinical trials – so that’s exactly what we’ve built!

With our mission to modernize and simplify clinical trials, we are unique in the industry for enabling digital, searchable study content. When content is digital, it’s easily accessible on devices that users already have and are comfortable using, making the user experience intuitive and familiar. Recently, we have been focusing on advancing the cross-functionality of our platform – allowing study teams to keep pace with modern communication best practices seen in other industries.

Ongoing user research and customer feedback enable our Teckro team to identify and design solutions for barriers to effective communication in clinical trials. Applying basic digital principles to both content and communication practices takes this a step further. Study teams can intertwine these elements and craft an effective, tailored communication strategy – connecting with sites and directing them to valuable, engaging content in a way they’re used to with other applications.

Keeping Pace = Embracing Multimedia

In today’s multimedia world, video has become the leading content format. It’s widely understood that visuals are processed significantly faster than text and interpreted better. Digital strategies across many industries now prioritize video content for higher engagement, greater comprehension and overall user satisfaction. Similarly, the podcast industry is booming, with millions of users tuning in to their favorite shows every week. (If you want to keep up with trial triumphs and rad trends in the industry, check out Teckro's own podcast, Totally Clinical!)

Multimedia content in clinical trials is largely untapped, though the benefit is clear. Consider the greater depth and clarity that can be delivered to sites by sharing a short, interesting podcast from your lead medical experts outlining the rationale for your trial design. Or the intricacy that can be easily communicated from a video demonstrating a complex visit procedure. Engagement with study content is likely to translate to engagement with the study, keeping it top of mind for sites. In this way, all stakeholders reap the rewards.

Digital Campaigns for Effective Content Distribution

Communication campaigns across various industries combine tried and tested digital strategies to improve communication efficacy and increase engagement – driving desired actions from a target audience. Increasingly, available self-service content is seeing greater consumption (even with content that has existed for years!) simply because people are being directed the right way by effective communication campaigns.

But, what about the clinical research industry? With the unique application of this framework to clinical trials, those recognized strategies are translated into powerful tools for study engagement and content accessibility.

Sponsors and study teams can create robust yet flexible communication plans, supplying essential information to their site staff at the right time along with driving them to associated supporting resources. When a digital approach is adopted, you can say goodbye to ineffectual email blasts! Communication no longer needs to remain static, liberating study teams to triage and meet site needs in a way that is purposeful and tailored for greater impact and greater site satisfaction.

Teckro: Digitally Interconnected Trials

Teckro is your digital protocol, interconnecting study stakeholders with each other and the content and communication they need throughout the trial lifecycle. Our digital content and communication features work collaboratively, increasing accessibility and engagement by giving sponsors and study teams a comprehensive toolkit for connecting with their sites and monitors.

Video and audio resource capability is supported, making the content – and your study – more memorable. Digital, searchable essential study documents provide self-serve answers and alleviate the paper and versioning burden. Teckro enables engaging delivery of information and study resources, on a site-by-site basis, and sites can quickly initiate conversations with study experts to ask questions or seek clarifications.

Study teams and sponsors on Teckro can create targeted, tailored message templates, allowing quick and easy execution of valuable study communications. This reduces administrative burden, eliminates siloed content repositories, and helps to maintain consistency and governance of messaging.

Customizable buttons can be embedded in messages, linking research staff directly to the most appropriate resource: inclusion/exclusion criteria in the protocol, a video outlining a procedure, or a question to a study expert. What’s more, engagement on Teckro is measurable, with message open rate tracking and digital content search trend data providing invaluable insights to study teams.

A New World of Possibility

Digitally interconnected trials on Teckro surface study resources and the clinical expertise of the study team, making both available to site staff in a way that is more efficient, more powerful, and more easily consumed for simplified operations and greater study outcomes.

Modern approaches are familiar and humanize your trial with content and communication that are truly helpful to your audience. Ultimately, digitally interconnected clinical trials open a new world of possibility and elevate the potential for impactful collaboration between study stakeholders.

Mia Li

Guest