Social Media For Patient Recruitment

By Scott Connor, VP of Marketing, Acurian

The phenomenal growth and utilization of online social networks has created a range of new opportunities for recruiting patients into clinical trials. From Facebook to Snapchat and Bebo to hi5, social networks offer sponsors a channel through which they can proactively and cost-effectively place trial information directly in front of potential participants.

But just as social networking services are still working through the questions and challenges presented by this relatively new online frontier, so too are trial sponsors trying to understand the true promise and potential pitfalls associated with leveraging these networks to recruit participants.