The world of clinical trials, global patient recruitment is a persistent challenge. Studies show that nearly 55% of clinical trials fail to meet their original recruitment targets, and about 30% of participants drop out before completing the trial. The diversity of trial participants is another critical issue. For instance, racial and ethnic minorities remain underrepresented, even though many diseases disproportionately affect these groups. In order to recruit, monitor and support several distinct demographics across a global trial, companies must successfully navigate the language barriers, cultural differences, and regulatory variations that can derail even the best planned study. Whether recruiting specific populations from around the world or providing critical safety information across the globe, fast and accurate translation of technical materials and documents can be a significant factor in ensuring patient safety and enabling the next breakthrough. As a industry leading localization provider, CSOFT Health Sciences provides critical and high-impact solutions to improve patient recruitment and engagement at any stage of a clinical trial or study, ensuring that nothing is lost when communicating across language and cultural barriers.
Localizing Patient Recruitment Outreach from within the Target Population
effectively engage and recruit people from a specific ethnic or geographical background, it is essential to localize all outreach and trial materials to meet the linguistic and cultural needs of each region. This localization process requires much more than simple word- for- word translation, especially for complex medical or scientific materials. From regionally specific marketing campaigns to patient portals and electronic informed consent forms, it is critical to consider both the region’s practical and technical use of language and maintain consistency. With a global network of over 10,000 in-country linguists and subject matter experts, CSOFT ensures that all meanings are considered when localizing outreach for a specific population. The authentic and accurate localization of patient recruitment materials also contributes to regulatory compliance and can improve patient understanding, both critical aspects of a successful global clinical trial.
Building Patient Trust with Localized, Culturally Attuned Messaging
heir messaging. From an insider’s perspective, CSOFT’s localization team can ensure that all trial participants receive an equal level of care and support regardless of where they are located or which customs they practice. This even includes subpopulations of countries that use one primary language, for example, the United States. This concept is supported by a recently published study by the National Library of Medicine, which showed that patient recruitment materials were more effective with African American and Latino populations when they were customized for that specific demographic. Although this finding may seem obvious, it underscores the dire need for such customization for global clinical trials, in which patients may be recruited from places with little to nothing in common. By localizing all communications with special care given to cultural sensitivities, a clinical trial may increase patient trust and improve the accuracy of health outcome measures.
Leveraging Localized Tech-Enhanced Recruitment Platforms and Digital Strategies
CSOFT’s global network of in-country linguists and subject matter experts are well equipped to localize all the digital content that is now critical to recruiting patients in the 21st century. Specifically, websites and online applications play a significant role in recruiting patients, with study-specific portals allowing recruitment companies to actively reach, engage, screen, and refer patients. CSOFT helps life science companies implement user-friendly, mobile-optimized recruitment portals that are localized for each region to recruit patients most effectively. Additionally, CSOFT leverages digital tools that are customized for patient access based on language, country, and technology usage for optimal communication with any target demographic. The integration of multilingual trial platforms with patient-centric designs can greatly streamline recruitment processes and improve the user experience across the globe.
Without proper multilingual localization for these crucial content elements, such as UI strings, a diverse range of patients cannot be effectively engaged or recruited for clinical studies. Additionally, some patient recruitment relies on digital ads and social media outreach to access certain demographics. By utilizing patient recruitment localization solutions with culturally sensitive digital marketing campaigns, clinical studies can increase patient diversity and the patient pool size in a clinical trial.
Patient Recruitment via Medico-Marketing Localization Services
One of the most effective patient recruitment methods for clinical trials is to attract potential participants via an established footprint in the public’s medical/ scientific consciousness. This method is called medico-marketing: the promotion of pharmaceutical products or treatments targeting potential influencers such as physicians (physician-targeted medico-marketing), sales professionals, or other life science consumers such as labs and hospitals (direct-to-consumer medico-marketing). Any life science company looking to use medico-marketing for patient recruitment must provide materials translated with the highest degree of accuracy and cultural sensitivity to be promoted by experts in the field. High quality and accurate patient recruitment localization solutions can also contribute to achieving compliance with the strict ethics that govern medico-marketing in many parts of the world. For all medico-marketing instances, CSOFT provides “patient-centric” content for healthcare providers (HCPs) to advance health literacy and improve patient outcomes while maintaining brand identity across sales professionals’ content.
Achieving Global Recruitment Success with Localization Solutions
In many ways, the success of patient recruitment hinges on the implementation of localized content for the target demographics across the globe, ensuring that all outreach materials contain culturally relevant strategies, and technology-driven engagement platforms. By tailoring all patient recruitment materials to resonate with diverse populations, clinical trial sponsors can build trust and improve recruitment efficiency simultaneously and across multiple regions around the world. Patient recruitment is a crucial aspect of clinical trials, but the need for high-quality translation and localization extends beyond achieving recruitment goals. To ensure a clinical trial’s success, patient retention materials must also be translated effectively throughout a study. Embracing professional localization services ensures that clinical trials are not only compliant but also effective in reaching the right patients. To elevate your global trial outcomes, partner with CSOFT Health Sciences, a trusted health science localization provider that can help transform and optimize your recruitment strategies for success!