In a case study recently published in Applied Clinical Trials a text messaging campaign designed and implemented by Mosio, Inc. was used to accelerate patient enrollment in a vaccine clinical trial. Use of Mosio’s mobile-health approach achieved a 1 per cent increase in research subjects enrolled for every 1.5 per cent increase in text messages sent. Over an 8-week enrollment period, a total of 1,541 text messages sent resulted in screening of 795 patients and enrollment of 265 patients.

“The minute we sent the texts, we would immediately get a lot of calls,” reported Mazen Zari, Co-Founder, Acting VP and Director of Operations for Johnson County Clin-Trials, a clinical research facility in Lenexa, KS, that operates 10-15 vaccine clinical trials per year. “It was not double or triple, but five times the response compared to e-mail. Our enrollment results exceeded the trial sponsor’s expectations.”

“This study has demonstrated that text messaging through a strategic and powerful patient engagement platform is an effective tool to engage patients for clinical trial recruitment and enrollment by connecting with participants on the devices they use every day,” commented Noel Chandler, Co-Founder and CEO of Mosio.

Patient recruitment, retention, and medication adherence continue to be challenges in conducting effective clinical trials. In one study that typifies the subject retention challenge, nearly 17 per cent of study patients dropped out, with a mean cost of approximately $4,000+ per dropout.1 In investigational product trials, non-adherence rates of 20 per cent-30 per cent require a 50 per cent increase in clinical trial sample size to maintain equivalent statistical power, while a 50 per cent non-adherence rate requires a 200 per cent increase in sample size.

While clinical trials often rely on email recruitment, recent studies suggest that only 22 per cent of emails are read. Alternatively, 98 per cent of text messages are read and 90 per cent of text messages are read within the first three minutes of receipt.

Additional studies have evaluated the impact of Short Messaging System (SMS) in healthcare settings, such as appointment reminders and medication adherence. Results have demonstrated that SMS intervention significantly improved patient behavioral outcomes: Patients who received SMS reminders were more likely to show up to appointments and on time,5 and patients who received SMS reminders were more adherent to medications and 94 per cent considered the reminders useful

“We were initially concerned that patients weren't going to find text messaging useful, but on the contrary, patients really liked it,” adds Zari.