ePharmaSolutions' ReferralPlus™ Increases Match Rate For Clinical Trial Volunteers By More than 66% During Pilot Studies With Major Pharmaceutical Consortium Members

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., April 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- ePharmaSolutions, a leading provider of eClinical solutions announced the results of the initial pilot studies for its patient matching and triaging solution, ReferralPlus™,  that suggest a significant improvement in match rates for people who are actively searching for clinical trials in which to participate.

"We are absolutely thrilled with the results of these pilots and want to thank all of the pharmaceutical companies who helped us reach this important milestone," stated Lisa La Luna, ePharmaSolutions' Sr. Vice President of Corporate Development.  "With the help of several major pharmaceutical companies and our partner CenterWatch, we were able to increase pre-qualified referral rates by 60% by offering patients options to screen for multiple studies at the same time when they respond to recruitment advertisements," continued La Luna.

ReferralPlus™ was designed by ePharmaSolutions as a tool to match patients who disqualify for one study with others they might qualify for using a geo-therapeutic matching algorithm with other studies listed on their technology.  The concept was born out of the fact that 95% of patients who respond to a recruitment advertisement do not qualify and/or enroll in that study.  Most of those patients are left without options and never find another study for which they qualify and enroll for. The ReferralPlus™ process and technology is similar to how OpenTable™ matches people with the restaurants they are interested in by using demographic and time availability algorithms (i.e. ABC Bistro has no available reservations for tonight, but these similar Bistros have availability and are within a five minute drive of ABC Bistro).

In 2012, ePharmaSolutions organized more than 30 major pharmaceutical companies and CROs to participate in the pilots to determine if they could help increase enrollment rates by triaging/matching patients who disqualified from one clinical trial to trials listed by other participating sponsors.  The pilots started at the end of 2013 with the early results showing a significant improvement in cross-study matching which will offer significant economic advantages to pharmaceutical companies recruiting patients while providing patients with more opportunities to find for the right study.

The pilot data came from three pharmaceutical companies who listed their studies on the CenterWatch™ web listing service and used the ReferralPlus™ screening and matching solution.   None of the pilot studies included an advertising outreach budget.

The results are summarized below:

• 33% of the total patients who screened for one study were eligible for and referred to a study site
• 18% of patients who disqualified from the first study, pre-qualified and were referred to another study
• 50% of patients who disqualified for any of the studies listed, registered to be contacted about future studies

"The data is especially compelling due to the small number of studies we piloted with a low number of sites and absence of real direct-to-patient outreach," noted Wes Martz, Head of Patient Recruitment and Retention for ePharmaSolutions.  "As we move into production with hundreds of studies and thousands of sites, the chances to match pre-qualified patients with actively recruiting studies will increase exponentially, proving a valuable service for patients while decreasing overall recruitment costs for the industry," Martz added.

About ePharmaSolutions, Inc.

ePharmaSolutions is a leading provider of eClinical solutions and specialty clinical services that help improve the way trial sites are selected, trained, activated and managed to exceed enrollment goals. ePharmaSolutions has won multiple industry awards for its eClinical platform which now hosts more than 300,000 clinical researchers in 130 countries for the leading pharmaceutical companies and CROs. ePharmaSolutions is headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, PA with offices in Slough, UK.  ePharmaSolutions new address is 1 IMS Drive, Suite 200, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462.

For more information visit us at www.epharmasolutions.com

SOURCE ePharmaSolutions