When a research crisis occurs, even if it's not in your backyard, healthcare marketers can do more damage control. A few high-profile disasters that the research industry has
yet to rebound from offer such opportunity:
- The death of Jesse Geisinger, an 18-year-old who died in a gene therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania last month; and
- The deaths of 63 patients that may have been caused by Rezulin, the diabetes drug that was put on the fast track for FDA approval and yanked from the market this summer.
When research problems are reported, the community needs to get big picture messages about how rare they are, what local initiatives are in place to prevent them in your area
and perhaps, most importantly, why clinical trials are a necessary component of moving innovative medicine forward. "We need to do a better job of branding clinical research and
explaining how it helps to advance medicine," says Bonnie Brescia, president of BBK Patient Recruitment, a healthcare communications agency in Newton, Mass.
One area that remains steeped in confusion and controversy is the patient consent process. While there are no consistent guidelines that regulate patient consent, PR efforts
can fill in some of the gaps and provide proactive community education. Core messages should underscore your facility's patient consent policies in candid, consumer-friendly
language and should offer conflict of interest explanations and data on the risks involved with clinical research. The Internet and patient newsletters are among the most
effective and efficient vehicles for communicating these messages, says Brescia.
Talking About Tough Issues
With 60,000 to 70,000 clinical trials under way at any given time and the need for patient volunteers tripling in the past year, there's an increased urgency to immediately
identify and resolve negative perceptions of clinical research, particularly where minorities and women are concerned. "We have to be willing to talk about tough issues like the
medical industry's long history of abusing minorities in research experiments and the traditional exclusion of women in research to effectively address the distrust and lack of
understanding that keeps many people from participating in clinical trials," says Jim Miller, account supervisor at Equals Three Communications in Bethesda, Md.
Addressing cultural barriers to patient recruitment doesn't have to overwhelm your department's communication resources. But it does require a long-term commitment. Start by
researching minority attitudes toward clinical research in your community and use a combination of outreach vehicles to attack the most pressing patient recruitment concerns (see
sidebar). "We aren't going to undo the damage done to minorities by research abuses like the Tuskegee experiment overnight, but we have to be prepared to answer to them and move
on," says Miller.
(BBK Patient Recruitment, Bonnie Brescia, 301/272-2432; Equals Three Communications, Jim Miller, 617/630-4477)
Recruiting Minorities For Research
To boost minority participation in clinical research, consider:
- educational seminars on patient consent using medical professionals and minority leaders in the community;
- a media directory of local research experts who are capable of discussing the merits of research, minority voids and the drug development process;
- direct mail to key community organizations like senior groups, churches, condominium associations and fraternities and sororities;