Overview 

Patients place great trust in their doctor when considering care options. This trust is grounded not only in their doctor’s medical expertise and access to their complete medical information, but also in the strong sense of comfort and familiarity that exists between them. In the process of facilitating medical breakthroughs and bringing new therapies to market, clinical trials can be a viable care option for participants. However, due to constraints on your time and resources, it can be difficult to stay up to date with active clinical trials in your local area and subsequently refer them to your patients as a care option. This article will aim to empower you with 3 practical tips for helping your patients access clinical trials as a care option, and in so doing, foster a more collaborative approach to advancing medical research and patient well-being.

Tip one: Destigmatise clinical trials

Many patients are apprehensive to partake in clinical trials because of common misconceptions about their target audience, ethical standards, and level of risk. As such, one way you can empower your patients to access clinical trials as a care option is to address these misconceptions. Remind your patients that clinical trials adhere to rigorous ethical standards enforced to safeguard the participants’ well-being throughout the study. 

Emphasise that clinical trials are thoughtfully designed with the participants’ interests at heart to advance medical knowledge and improve treatment options for everyone. Inform your patients that the eligibility criteria for clinical trials vary widely, and they are not solely relegated to severely ill patients with no other recourse. By providing this type of reassurance, you can help your patients consider clinical trials as a viable care option, rather than as an experimental treatment with unchecked risks.

Tip two: Encourage your patients to sign up to clinical trial databases

Another way you can help your patients access clinical trials as a care option is to encourage them to sign up to clinical trial databases and receive updates about clinical trials that may be suitable. Australian Clinical Trials is the official government clinical trial database, however, clinical trial databases like this are enormous, and your patients may find it overwhelming trying to sift through and assess their eligibility for pages and pages of clinical trials. This frustration may deter them from exploring clinical trials as a care option any further. To overcome this challenge, you can instead encourage your patients to sign up for Evrilink, our clinical trial recruitment software that enables users to search and register for approved clinical trials that can contribute to ground breaking medical research. 

What sets Evrilink apart from other clinical trial databases is the personalised approach - the Evrima team takes the time to understand your patients and their health history to selectively identify clinical trials that may be the right fit. And upon registering their interest with Evrima, your patients will receive a call from one of our Patient Experience team members to address any concerns or questions. Your patients will also receive regular updates from the Evrilink platform about their enrolment progress, which can help eliminate feelings of uncertainty and encourage their continued participation. By recommending Evrilink, you can empower your patients to access clinical trials as a care option more effectively.

Tip three: Stay up-to-date with clinical trials in your area

You can also empower your patients to access clinical trials as a care option by staying up to date with active clinical trials in your area. Joining the referral network of nearby clinical research organisations or clinical trial sites is one way to achieve this. However, this approach may burden your already limited time and resources. A more efficient alternative is to use Evripath, our clinical trial search tool designed specifically for GPs. Evripath is a user-friendly platform that allows you to search and refer your patients for clinical trials covering a vast range of therapeutic areas and chronic health conditions.

And it's easy to use: once you're logged in, you can search for active clinical trials that may be of benefit to your patients and refer them onto our experienced Evrima team for screening. We partner with leading researchers and clinicians around the world, and all the clinical trials we support comply with Good Clinical Practice (GCP), including advanced data protection. As such, you can rest assured you'll be referring your patients to experienced, professional teams who will support them through the entire clinical trial process. By streamlining the process of connecting your patients to clinical trials, you can not only widen the scope of their care options, but also contribute to medical breakthroughs. With Evripath, you can stay informed and become an active facilitator in your patients’ journey towards better health outcomes through clinical trial participation.

Final thoughts

As a doctor, you play a pivotal role in guiding your patients towards the best care options. Clinical trials have emerged as a valuable avenue for both advancing medical breakthroughs and managing conditions. By destigmatising clinical trials, encouraging your patients to register in databases like Evrilink, and using user-friendly platforms like Evripath to refer suitable trials, you can empower your patients to access clinical trials as a care option. Embracing these three tips not only enhances your patients’ well-being but also enables you to actively contribute to improved treatments and outcomes, for everyone. For more information about how our clinical trial recruitment solutions can help you provide more care options for your patients, contact us today to schedule a call.