WHITE PAPER
Recruiting Rare Disease Patients Just Got Easier
SOMS based AI/ML analysis and genetic testing support helps sponsors speed recruitment for rare disease trials.
Nov 07, 2022

Many drugs being developed today focus on rare and genetic diseases, which often have very small populations, limited diagnostics, and no common treatment paths. This makes conventional recruiting methods ineffective, which can add months of even years to the recruiting process.

However, utilization of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) can help sponsors accelerate the search process by finding undiagnosed and underdiagnosed patients with risk factors that mimic those who have been diagnosed. Combining these risk factors with effective genetic testing and counseling can help sponsors find and successfully recruit patients faster, cutting months from the trial life cycle. This paper explores how AI/ML technology and genetic testing can transform recruiting for rare disease research and give sponsors an edge in attracting participants to their trials.

The rare disease landscape Recruiting has always been one of the most difficult elements of clinical research. Even when a disease has millions of diagnosed patients and a well-established treatment path, finding patients who meet inclusion/exclusion criteria and convincing them to participate in a study is difficult. In rare disease research, that challenge is amplified. Rare diseases only affect a very small percentage of the population. The US Food and Drug Administration defines a disease as rare if less than 200,000 people in the US are affected (less than 0.06%) . The European Commission defines them as diseases that affect no more than 1 person in 2,000. Of the roughly 7000+ rare disease currently identified, it is estimated that roughly 80% are due to genetic causes; and 90% lack FDA approved treatments or therapies.

There is huge demand for treatments to address these unmet medical needs but finding study participants in order to run the trials is a constant challenge for sponsors. These diseases have small, dispersed populations with few specialists dedicated to the conditions, and most patients go years without getting an accurate diagnosis. That means study teams can go months before finding a single patient who fits the study criteria.

To solve this problem, life sciences companies need more targeted methods for finding patients, confirming diagnoses, and engaging them in conversations about the value of clinical study participation.

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