SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR USING ONLINE RESOURCES TO DESIGN A CLINICAL STUDY AND RECRUIT PARTICIPANTS

摘要

The present application is directed to methods and systems for tapping online resources to design a clinical trial and/or recruit participants for the clinical trial. In one embodiment, a system for using online resources to design a clinical trial and/or recruit participants includes one or more web crawlers. Each of the web crawler may be configured to collect data related to one or more specified topics during a community identification phase. A data engine of the system processes the collected data into filtered, relevant information that identifies communities of individuals suitable for recruitment. A patient discovery module may, in a patient discovery phase, develop or use a survey to further target interested patients for recruitment and collect information for designing a suitable study or trial. The system may, in an assessment and communication phase, design a study which may be self-managed by the recruited patients. The study may provide feedback for refining or modifying any one of the above phases. The study may also aim to address certain issues faced by the recruited patients, such as ensuring compliant use of a drug, elimination of side-effects, and using a modified therapy to improve the effectiveness of a drug, etc.