3 Solutions To The Worsening Clinical Trial Patient Travel Problem

With the increase in decentralized trial models and technology, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is easy to assume patient travel has gotten easier or less frequent in recent years. However, a Greenphire analysis of clinical trial participant travel, reported in Outsourcing Pharma, uncovered exactly the opposite: clinical trial travel rose from 29% in 2019 to 44% in 2021.¹ The Greenphire analysis also found that trial participants in the analyzed group traveled, on average, 67 miles each way to visit trial sites and 60% had to travel more than 30 minutes one way. Furthermore, on average, rare disease participants traveled 135 miles for a study.

This increase in travel distance, time, and frequency suggests travel is a bigger barrier to patient recruitment and retention than the industry previously thought. However, Elligo Health Research^® offers several solutions to overcoming the patient-travel barrier.