By Clinical Research News Staff

February 4, 2025 | In a contest focused on the finalist themes of AI (artificial intelligence), DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), and community engagement, a winner was chosen to be the 9th Annual Participant Engagement Award during opening ceremonies yesterday at the Summit for Clinical Ops Executives in Orlando. This year’s top honor went to Grove AI for personalizing participant recruitment and engagement at scale using a smart bot named Grace acting as a clinical research assistant. 

The Participant Engagement Award recognizes innovation and change in how the clinical research industry communicates with participants in the fields of recruitment and retention in clinical trials. The award is given each year in memory of Jerry Matczak, the first winner in 2017. 

In the leadup to the announcement, the judging panel fielded questions related to the prevailing submission themes from awards program co-creators David Sall, president and CEO of Patient Enrollment Advisors and Kelly McKee, head of innovative patient recruitment at Evinova. As summed up by McKee, AI was uniformly viewed as “a tool, not a solution, and to proceed ahead with caution.” 

The AI agent Grace was credited with increasing on-site screening appointments by 580 percent in 12 trials across 19 sites, while improving participants' experiences with a two-second response time, multilingual support, and 24/7 availability. Grove AI reports that it is now expanding into new therapeutic areas and regions, enhancing engagement using data, AI, and strategic collaboration with leading clinical research experts. 

Ichor, which has a new model for clinical trials in long-term care, was named the first runner-up for opening doors to under-represented populations in facility-based residential settings. The second runner-up was SGM Alliance for its work in expanding access and inclusion for sexual and gender minority populations in clinical trials. The organization received an honorable mention during last year’s award ceremony. 

The three other initiatives making it to the finals included a partnership between Walgreens and AstraZeneca (AZ) using AZ’s digital health company Evinova to improve community and patient engagement; efforts by Mural Health to remove tax barriers to clinical trial participation; and the clinical trial matching platform of Pathway specific to pediatric oncology patients.  

Along with Sall and McKee, Participant Engagement Award judges included Micah Lieberman, executive director of conferences for Cambridge Healthtech Institute; Tricia Barrett, CEO of Praxis; Brian Burkhardt, cofounder and executive director of the Oliver Patch Project, Inc.; Gretchen Goller, senior director and head of patient recruitment, clinical development operations, Seagen; Jen Horonjeff, Ph.D., founder and CEO, Savvy Cooperative; Stacy Hurt, chief patient officer for Parexel International; Otis Johnson, Ph.D, principal consultant, Trial Equity; and Kim Ribeiro, head of diversity and patient inclusion at AbbVie.