Links: Podcast episode (Youtube) | Dan Sfera's LinkedIn | Ethan Bond's LinkedIn

A few weeks ago I was invited onto Dan Sfera's podcast, a big moment for two reasons. First, Dan and his podcast are a huge reason why we're building a tool for clinical trial sites. Second, this was my first time publicly sharing the vision for that tool: to give every healthcare provider the ability to contribute to the next generation of medicines. If you missed it, the podcast episode is free on Youtube, or read on for more details on what we're building and how Dan (among others) helped us find our way here.

I led product development for Palantir's Life Sciences division for a few years, so I'm no stranger to drug development. But it turns out this industry is huge. I built countless data tools for organizations like Merck, Novartis, and the NIH, and never once touched the true foundation of the whole value chain: clinical trial sites themselves.

This is where Dan comes in. For those who don't know, Dan is the guy for a no-bullshit, insider's look at how clinical trial sites really work. His excellent YouTube channel and book were our map to this new territory.

It was through Dan's content (and dozens of user interviews) that we learned of one of the industry's most critical relationships: that between a trial site and the healthcare providers who refer patients to the site.

Trial sites' relationships with providers are critical for recruitment

There are a few ways a trial site can recruit patients into its trials, and none of them is easy. One method — the one we believe is most promising going forward — is provider-based referrals. Imagine that you go to a doctor to receive care, and your doctor mentions, "Hey, there's actually a trial going on nearby that's worth considering. Want to hear more?"

Contrast this with direct recruitment approaches: subway ads, Instagram ads, and tables set up at the mall by strangers requesting that you let some unknown pharma company put an unknown drug in your body. Some people do it! And we're thankful they do. But the statistics show all sorts of advantages to having a trusted care provider mediating a person's introduction to the world of clinical trials.

When it comes to referrals, you can have volume or quality

The problem with provider-based referrals is volume. Only 3-5% of doctors ever refer patients to clinical trials, and of those who do, the median doctor refers only 0.2% of their annual patient flow (or about 5 patients per year). Less than 9% of US patients have ever been offered the opportunity to participate, yet when offered to participate, patients will accept almost 50% of the time! There are many reasons for providers' low referral rate, which we bundle under the heading provider activation. And as the world's first Provider Activation Platform, we're going to attack all of them.

Our goal is simple: we want every patient to be aware of every treatment option available to them, especially the treatments still in development. A single person's willingness to participate in a trial can determine whether or not the next life-changing treatment makes it to the patients who need it — and that might be you, me, or one of our loved ones. But before a person can be a willing pioneer of drug discovery, they must be an informed patient, and that's a big challenge.

One of the biggest reasons for low referral rates is that it's difficult for a doctor to know if they're speaking to a patient who is a good fit for a nearby trial. Inclusion/exclusion criteria are complex and getting more so every year. Doctors don't have the mental space to figure this stuff out when they're already struggling to meet record-high demand for their most basic services. So we take that off their plate by connecting to their EHR and proactively notifying them when seeing a patient who's a good candidate. With SelectIQ, more doctors can participate in research while minimizing the amount of new stress they have to take on.

This is just the beginning

We're on a mission to empower every doctor and every patient to contribute to the absolute marvel that is modern medicine. I was thrilled to share this vision with Dan, who continues to play such an important role in our understanding of this space.

If you're a trial site or provider interested in learning more about SelectIQ, take 30 seconds to join our waitlist and we'll be in touch very shortly. We're letting folks onto the platform based on a few variables, so don't be worried if you're fairly far back.