The Importance of Patient Engagement and Clinical Trials

The Importance of Patient Engagement and its Role in Clinical Trials

Life is full of decisions. From the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed, we make decisions. About what we wear, what we eat, the next show to binge. 

What about the decisions we make about our health? Do we make the decision to exercise regularly? Do we decide to drink water over another cup of coffee? Making informed decisions when it comes to our healthcare can be overwhelming and intimidating which is why patient engagement is so important and necessary as studies have shown that when patients are more actively involved in their healthcare they experience better health outcomes. 

Patient engagement relies on the interaction between the healthcare providers, caregivers, and patients to make good healthcare decisions on behalf of the patient. Ultimately, it’s up to the patient to take this information and make an informed decision about their care.  But how does one cut through the medical jargon to understand what’s being said?

This is where plain (or lay) language comes in. It's an easy and effective way of communicating with patients by speaking to them in a way they can understand. Perhaps one of the most important informed decisions a person can make about their health is whether or not to participate in a clinical trial. With a growing need for participants to enroll in clinical trials, the need for patient engagement and more importantly, lay language comes into play.

Coupled with patient engagement is a growing need for lay language materials to aid in the understanding and importance of making informed healthcare decisions. CISCRP is one of the leading companies producing high quality lay language patient engagement materials aimed at helping participants make informed decisions on their health. 

Offering a wide variety of services from trial results summaries to a range of education brochures CISCRP leads the charge in effective, easy to understand patient engagement materials. While many sponsors understand and believe in the importance of patient engagement and more specifically providing trial results, it was reported that 61% of participants did not receive any reports on the results of their trial. Partnering with sponsors and under guidance from the EU CTR, CISCRP has been able to provide thousands of plain language summaries of trial results for over 15 years, giving back to participants the results of their trial in language they can understand. They are a critical and important aspect of helping patients take an active role in their healthcare and by helping them understand the trial they participated in and its outcome, empowers them to make better decisions going forward.

CISCRP is a committed leader of empowering participants to make informed decisions about their health. For more information on their mission and services visit their website www.ciscrp.org.

References:

“Health Policy Brief: Patient Engagement," Health Affairs, February 14, 2013.

“Why Patient Engagement Is Important In Healthcare,” Sequence Health, April 7, 2020.

The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation