Hot Flashes  Clinical Trial  Recruitment Case Study

For millions of women worldwide, the transition through menopause brings  significant quality-of-life challenges, with vasomotor symptoms (VMS) – commonly known as hot flashes - being one of the most disruptive manifestations. Despite affecting up to 80% of women during menopause, the underlying mechanisms of VMS have remained poorly understood, leaving a significant gap in effective treatment options.

This case study examines an innovative digital patient recruitment campaign for  a decentralized clinical trial investigating a novel approach to managing moderate to severe VMS. Our team developed a comprehensive campaign strategy, including all patient-facing materials, site support resources, and educational materials designed to support both potential participants and research sites throughout the trial journey. The study sought to evaluate an investigational treatment’s efficacy in reducing both the frequency and intensity of hot flashes in menopausal women experiencing multiple episodes daily.

The decentralized nature of the trial, combined with targeted paid media strategies, presented unique opportunities in reaching and engaging eligible participants while addressing the sensitive nature of menopausal symptoms. This case study explores how we leveraged exact messaging, digital platforms, and precise targeting to connect with potential participants.

Drive Geographic Expansion
Our strategy focused on creating a flexible recruitment framework that could seamlessly activate across multiple states, supporting efficient site onboarding and study expansion through a rolling launch approach. This adaptive model enabled rapid response to new site activation while maintaining consistent quality of patient referrals.

Build Diverse Community Trust
We aimed to develop culturally competent engagement strategies that would resonate with historically underrepresented communities, emphasizing transparency and representation. Our outreach focused on building meaningful connections to overcome traditional barriers to clinical trial participation.

Generate High-Symptom Referrals
Beyond broad menopausal outreach, we needed to identify and engage women experiencing frequent vasomotor symptoms (7+ hot flashes daily). This required precise targeting and messaging approaches to reach this specific population while maintaining sensitivity to their daily challenges.

Optimize Decentralized Implementation
By developing a comprehensive digital recruitment strategy, we worked to streamline the decentralized trial model while ensuring consistent patient experience across all participating sites. Our approach focused on maximizing efficiency while maintaining high-quality patient engagement throughout the recruitment process.

Streamline Patient Experience
Our strategy emphasized the trial’s participant-friendly design, highlighting key benefits including no-cost participation, minimal time commitment, brief study duration, and the convenience of at-home participation. These elements were consistently featured to demonstrate the accessibility of the research opportunity.

Implement Data-Driven Optimization
hrough robust A/B testing of creative elements, we continuously refined our approach based on demographic and lifestyle factors. This iterative optimization process enabled us to identify and leverage the most effective messaging and visual elements for our target audience.

Create Compelling Calls-to-Action
We developed strategic messaging that emphasized both urgency and impact, positioning trial participation as a valuable opportunity to contribute to advancing treatment options for menopausal symptoms. This framing helped motivate qualified candidates to take immediate action.

Diversify Media Engagement
Our multi-channel approach leveraged carefully selected video, audio, and written content to maximize engagement across different platforms and communication preferences. Each medium was strategically chosen to resonate with our target audience while maintaining consistent messaging across channels.

Drive Efficient Recruitment Performance
Our campaign achieved remarkably low patient acquisition costs, maintaining an average cost per referral of approximately $10. Through continuous optimization, we successfully reduced referral costs by 50% over the course of the campaign, demonstrating significant efficiency improvements.

Deliver Consistent High Volume
The media strategy generated thousands of qualified referrals monthly, maintaining strong performance throughout the campaign duration. With an impressive 80% of total trial enrollments originating from our media efforts, the campaign proved to be the primary driver of study recruitment.

Exceed Quality Metrics
Our targeted approach yielded a superior 7% average conversion rate from referral to enrollment, significantly outperforming industry standards. This high-quality referral stream helped accelerate study timelines while minimizing site burden.

Enable Geographic Flexibility
The campaign architecture allowed for dynamic adjustment of referral volume by state, supporting the decentralized trial model and enabling responsive allocation of resources based on site capacity and enrollment needs.

This decentralized clinical trial campaign demonstrated that strategic digital recruitment, combined with careful attention to patient experience and site needs, can successfully drive enrollment even for studies with highly specific criteria. The campaign’s success in reaching women experiencing frequent vasomotor symptoms while maintaining low costs and high conversion rates validates our approach to digital patient recruitment.

Key learnings from this campaign highlight the importance of:
+  Flexible geographic activation that can scale with site onboarding
+  Cultural competency in reaching diverse communities
+  Data-driven optimization of creative and targeting
+  Multi-channel engagement strategies that prioritize patient convenience
+  Continuous performance monitoring and strategy refinement

The remarkable metrics achieved – including the $10 average cost per referral, 7% conversion rate, and consistent delivery of thousands of monthly referrals – establish a new benchmark for decentralized trial recruitment. Moreover, the 50% reduction in referral costs through optimization demonstrates the value of an agile, responsive campaign strategy.

This case study illustrates that by combining precise targeting, thoughtful messaging, and efficient digital delivery, clinical trial recruitment can effectively reach and engage specific patient populations while maintaining high quality standards and operational efficiency. These insights and approaches can be applied to future decentralized trials, particularly those requiring highly targeted recruitment in women’s health and beyond.