September 10, 2018 | Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) is welcoming entries for the SCOPE’s 2019 Participant Engagement Award, an annual award given at the Summit for Clinical Ops Executives (SCOPE), February 18-21, 2019 in Orlando, Fla. The Participant Engagement Awards recognize innovation, and change in how the industry communicates with participants in the fields of recruitment and retention in clinical trials.

The deadline for the 2019 award is September 30.

The SCOPE Participant Engagement Award includes a live pitch and judging component. Finalists are chosen by a panel of judges, and they present their entries live to the audience at SCOPE. The judges and the audience can ask questions of the entrants in the public forum.

David Sall, President & CEO of Patient Enrollment Advisors, and Kelly McKee, current Head of Patient Recruitment for Rare Diseases at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, created the awards program to change the conversation about innovation in the clinical trials industry.

“When I attended SCOPE a few years ago, I noticed a lot of companies were talking about innovation, but they were really using it as a buzzword,” Sall told Clinical Informatics News. “With the Participant Engagement Award, we’re giving companies the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is.”

Last year’s winner, Clara Health, embraced that innovation with its Breakthrough Crew, an ever-expanding team of over 100 patients, advocates, and caregivers that share their firsthand experiences with disease and clinical trials within their communities.

Lilly Stairs, Head of Patient Advocacy at Clara Health and a patient herself, presented the entry last year and accepted the award. Stairs credits the Participant Engagement Award with new connections for Clara Health.

“We’re working to put the power in the hands of the patient and make it easier for patients to connect to trials, and empower them with the knowledge that clinical trials are an option” Stairs told Clinical Informatics News after SCOPE last February.

In the months since the win, Clara Health has established many new partnerships driven by conversations begun at SCOPE, Stairs says, and has expanded the Breakthrough Crew’s work and resources.

The company just launched its second annual Patients Have Power campaign, a dedicated push to spread the word about clinical trials. This year’s campaign is called “Taking it to the Streets: From Hospitals to Hair Salons”, Stairs explains, and is focusing on activating the Clara Breakthrough Crew and industry in boots-on-the-ground advocacy for patients and clinical trials.

“There are a lot of patients—there are a lot of people—who are not online, and we need to be making sure we are making those people-to-people connections and communities,” Stairs says. Clara printed a Patients Have Power magazine filled with patient art, stories, and essays to serve as a tangible starting point for conversations about clinical research.

“[Volunteers are] bringing that into their communities. We have patients going into their support groups, we have them going into churches, into community centers, gyms. It’s spanning the gamut,” she says.

And there’s room for more. Stairs invites anyone—patient or participant, individual or industry—to participate in the #PatientsHavePower Twitter Chat on October 2; attend a Patients Have Power mixer in San Francisco or New York; join the Breakthrough Crew Ambassadors in sharing the Patients Have Power magazines; or even just post a photo holding up a Patients Have Power sign on social media to show support.

And she also encourages others doing innovative work in patient engagement to showcase their efforts at SCOPE. “I highly encourage anyone who is doing anything innovative to engage participants in clinical trials to consider applying for the SCOPE Participant Engagement Award,” she said in a video shared on LinkedIn. “It’s an incredible opportunity.”