What is StudyTeam's Referral Partner Interface and How Does It Benefit Sponsors?

In this article, we will share how Referral Partner Interface streamlines clinical trial enrollment, improves clinical trial referral ROI for sponsors, and provides sites with a better enrollment experience. 

Enrollment is one of the most critical components of clinical trials. After all, without patients, there are no studies. Unfortunately, clinical trial enrollment is also notoriously difficult. In fact, a staggering 80% of all trials fail to meet their enrollment objectives—a major roadblock for the research that could advance treatment and impact patients’ lives. 

Because patients are the cornerstone of any study, many sponsors invest heavily in central recruitment tactics and often work with patient referral partners to help fill the recruitment funnel. 

However, as site staff struggle with massive to-do lists and a myriad of disconnected tools, successful enrollment requires more than an overload of patient referrals. Beyond sheer recruitment numbers, sponsors and sites must focus on enrollment efficiency, making sure eligible patients do not fall through the cracks. That is where the Referral Partner Interface comes in.

What is Referral Partner Interface for clinical trial patient referrals?

Simply put, Referral Partner Interface, or RPI, connects the referral partner’s database to the StudyTeam platform used by the clinical trial site. It allows the site or sponsor’s referral partner to directly route patient information into the systems the sites already use and know. This lessens the burden on sites, eliminating the need to learn and integrate another tool into their busy schedules. From there, sites, sponsors, and referral partners can all view and act on the data in real time. 

Why should sponsors care about RPI? 

An influx of patient referrals does not guarantee success. Research site staff are often overextended and patient referrals sent via email and other traditional methods can easily get lost in the shuffle. When site staff have to transcribe patient information from emails or vendor portals into a separate patient tracking system, it creates more work and the potential for data entry errors. Combine this with inefficient communication between sponsors, sites, and referral partners and it is easy to see why eligible patients often fail to enroll.

For sponsors, this inefficiency costs money. Paying for referrals is a waste if they are lost to administrative issues, but RPI makes sure sponsors get their money’s worth by minimizing lost patient referrals. 

By keeping all referral data flowing through one workstream, RPI also provides real-time data, giving sponsors access to insights like: 

• How many referrals each recruitment partner and/or channel has produced
• The rate at which referrals are enrolling or not enrolling
• The percentage of enrollers coming from each recruitment channel
• Which referral partners are generating quality referrals
• Which sites need to act quicker on referrals
• Which I/E criteria referrals are failing most

For example, real-time data may reveal that the trial’s inclusion/exclusion criteria are too strict and need to be adjusted. Or it could show the current protocols are preventing a diverse pool of participants. 

This data gives sponsors an earlier and more accurate look into the ROI of their recruitment strategies, empowering them to act fast to improve enrollment—a huge benefit in an industry rife with delayed timelines.

On top of the ROI benefits, RPI ensures sites get a better enrollment experience with reduced admin burden, patients don’t get accidentally dropped from the process, and referral partners see increased impact for their efforts because of fewer lost referrals—a win-win for everyone involved.    

How does RPI fit into existing systems?

RPI is built to be flexible, and can integrate with a wide variety of patient sources, including:

• Traditional clinical trial recruitment partners
• Digital / social recruitment channels
• Sponsor recruitment portals or trial finders
• Websites developed for a clinical trial recruitment
• Virtually any cloud-based platform that sources patients for clinical trials

RPI also comes with direct access to our customer success team. From start to finish, our RPI experts will walk you through the integration process and set you up for streamlined workflow, increased enrollment efficiency, and better enrollment data. 

RPI is a critical step toward digital transformation in clinical trials. Click below to learn more.