PicnicResearch Expands Thumbprint to Help Clinical Trial Sponsors Stay Connected to the Patients They Screen and Enroll

Bridge and Match are the newest modules in Thumbprint, capturing screen-failed patients and turning the patient pool into a recruitment engine for future trials.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- PicnicResearch, the clinical research brand of PicnicAI, today added two new modules to Thumbprint, its direct-to-patient alternative to tokenization. Bridge and Match expand Thumbprint from a patient-anchored evidence product into the patient relationship layer for clinical research: a standing pool of characterized, research-willing patients, kept engaged and available for future clinical trials and evidence needs.

Patient recruitment is one of the largest investments in clinical research, yet patients are unnecessarily lost at screening and database lock, forcing sponsors to restart recruitment for the next study or settle for partial data through tokenization. Thumbprint keeps that investment intact, turning connections a sponsor would otherwise lose into a persistent, reusable asset.

The original product, now the Extend module, preserves a trial cohort beyond database lock, keeping participants available for future trial-anchored evidence, without the matching uncertainty or cohort loss of tokenization. Bridge captures patients who screen fail a trial, and Match connects the pool to future trials.

"An ongoing relationship with a well-characterized patient who is willing to participate in a study is enormously valuable in clinical research, yet too often that connection is lost," said Dan R. Drozd, MD, MSc, chief medical and scientific officer at PicnicResearch. "Keeping that relationship intact means the next study can generate evidence faster."

These modules sit on one shared patient substrate. Patients opt in to the pool and receive access to health tools and their medical records, sustaining the engagement that makes future enrollment possible.

PicnicResearch continuously retrieves each pooled patient's medical records and gives sponsors visibility through a real-time dashboard. Because that retrieval never stops, the asset grows richer the longer a patient stays in the pool.

When the next research question comes, sponsors can build on Thumbprint with a separately scoped study or use it to find eligible trial patients. Match identifies patients who meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria, contacts them, and verifies up to 80% of those criteria against the electronic health record before the first site visit. Study teams receive pre-qualified patients rather than leads, reducing screen failures.

Sponsors sign once and turn on modules as needed. The same pool that serves a single study can scale to an entire portfolio, so what a team builds for one study becomes a resource the whole enterprise can draw on. Thumbprint is built to keep expanding, with new modules launching on a regular cadence.

"So much of what sponsors tell us traces back to the same frustration: they spend enormously to find the right patients, and then they lose them," said Rachael Higgins, chief commercial officer at PicnicResearch. "These new modules came straight out of those conversations, and they won't be the last. We're continuously evaluating the next challenge Thumbprint can solve and building that capability."

PicnicResearch will be introducing sponsors to Thumbprint at DPHARM: Disruptive Innovations to Advance Clinical Research, September 15–16 in Boston. To schedule time to discuss Thumbprint at DPHARM, contact us. To learn more, visit our website.

About PicnicAI

PicnicAI builds intelligence to accelerate human health. The company harnesses the power of AI to address the complexity of healthcare delivery and clinical research through two product lines: PicnicHealth and PicnicResearch. PicnicHealth empowers patients with personalized guidance, actionable insights, and clinical support throughout their healthcare journey. PicnicResearch accelerates the pace of clinical research by making studies faster, more efficient, and more reliable, helping bring new treatments to patients sooner. Together, these efforts reflect PicnicAI's mission to use AI to transform human health and expand access to life-changing therapies. Learn more at picnic.ai.

SOURCE PicnicAI