Global Studies Say Travel Support Boosts Patient Retention

Boston, MA. – BBK Worldwide (BBK), an industry leader in patient recruitment and engagement technologies and services, today announced that its full-service patient travel and card reimbursements program, RSG (Ready. Set. Go.) designed specifically for patients and the clinical study community has improved patient recruitment and retention across five major global studies, processing more than 5,000 travel-related transactions and boosting retention by an average of 58%. An Infographic on the study audit data is available for download here.    BBK’s RSG Arrive manages all travel-related logistics – operational and financial – for patients and site staff. From car and shuttle booking, to international flight and accommodation management, BBK’s specialized and trained agents ensure that patients get to and from each study visit as simply and seamlessly as possible. BBK’s companion product RSG Card supports all travel-related spend and study reimbursements, also critically important for study retention. And because the platform is powered by BBK’s Patient Recruitment Management System (PRMS) TrialCentralNet all travel is coordinated in real-time with full data transparency for all study stakeholders, seamlessly supporting studies and patients in all languages and countries in compliance with sponsor- and ethics committee-specific guidelines. According to the results of a comprehensive five-study audit, sites utilizing BBK’s RSG Card and RSG Arrive benefit from dramatically better patient retention rates and greatly improved engagement.   With RSG Card, 28% of sites account for 67% of patients that have stayed in or completed the study. Patients within the cross-range of global studies evaluated by BBK actively using the RSG reimbursement program were 2.5 times less likely to withdraw from the study than patients being cared for at sites that did not use the RSG program.   When evaluating sites that deployed RSG Arrive travel, fully supported by a 24/7 multi-language call center, the positive statistical outcomes revealed that 11% of total sites accounted for 31% of patients that have stayed in or completed the study. Globally, sites that are actively using RSG Arrive saw a 5.8% withdrawal rate, while sites not offering RSG Arrive to their patients saw withdrawal rates at nearly 14%. Patients without access to the RSG Arrive program are twice as likely to drop out or withdraw over patients that use it.   “Today, study sponsors and sites struggle to manage travel and related needs, and as a result, patients with geographic barriers may never be offered the option of a clinical study or find themselves in the position of needing to drop out or opt out due to travel costs or the patient’s inability to manage logistics while dealing with a challenging health status,” says Hannu Koski, manager of site relations at BBK. Consider the new parents whose baby was born with a rare disease and has no treatment options for their baby’s condition outside of a clinical trial in a neighboring country. BBK’s unique approach to global travel addresses language and cultural barriers, to secure a much-needed birth certificate for the baby and travel visas for the family while making sure someone is available to greet the patient and family at the airport and assist them with living accommodations as their baby proceeds with the investigative treatment.   The conclusions and inferences drawn from the BBK analysis include that when precise support is lacking, opportunities for patients are missed, outcomes are less than optimal, care is potentially compromised and studies miss their deadlines and go over budget. “As more players attempt to provide clinical trial travel services, the R&D industry must be mindful of the need for targeted, full-service programs that understand and address the particular needs of each study’s patients,” said BBK Founding Principal and CEO Joan F. Bachenheimer. “Global assistance with air and ground arrangements; vetted and trained drivers; site support; 24/7 multilingual service support, cultural accommodations; and coordinated patient reimbursement must be addressed in a travel service that proves to demonstrate ROI across myriad therapeutic conditions. Convenience and cost are not the only barriers to patients showing up for appointments, not in the world of clinical trial recruitment and retention.”      For more information and to learn more please visit: www.bbkworldwide.com/rsg-arrive.   Follow BBK

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About BBK Worldwide

BBK Worldwide is the foremost patient recruitment and engagement technology firm, providing a range of award-winning creative services and technology solutions to the world’s most innovative pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies and their outsourced suppliers, such as CROs and eClinical providers. Committed to providing the support and solutions needed to improve patient engagement, enroll clinical studies on time, and expedite time-to-market, BBK delivers the industry’s only suite of products built from the ground up to address the patient and site engagement challenges inherent in running large, multinational studies. Headquartered near Boston, Massachusetts, BBK has partners and offices across Europe and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit

www.bbkworldwide.com

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