By eCliniqua Staff

March 22, 2013 | ePharmaSolutions, CenterWatch, and a consortium of pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations have launched the 'Referral Plus' Initiative to increase opportunities for patients to find trials for which they may qualify.

The Referral Plus Initiative uses a proprietary technology platform developed by ePharmaSolutions that programmatically matches patients who screen and disqualify from one trial into other "like" studies using a geo-therapeutic matching algorithm that links the patients' screening responses to entry criteria of the studies listed on the platform in real time. Patients who are not matched to active studies are invited to register with PatientLive, a Microsoft based application that provides patients with personalized information about approved medications, new medical therapies and new clinical trial opportunities for their condition(s) provided by CenterWatch and hosted in Microsoft HealthVault.

For pharmaceutical companies, Referral Plus helps optimize the millions of dollars spent on patient recruitment advertising while providing patients who respond to those advertisements with better chances to find studies for which they may qualify.

"Referral Plus is a very exciting new service. We are able to offer many more clinical trial opportunities to patients, while helping pharmaceutical companies develop important new treatments faster," said Joan Chambers, COO at CenterWatch in a statement. "We're delighted to be partnering with ePharmaSolutions and its progressive and innovative PatientLive approach." ePharma Solutions