The reasons I think video is a good way to expose people to learning about clinical trials are multiple. First, it allows me as a prospective clinical trial participant to learn about a clinical trials when I want to learn about it and where I want to learn about it – a hallmark of social media. Second, it is private – I can learn from a video that can be developed to address a wide range of issues – issues that I might not be so comfortable addressing with a live person. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, I learn about the clinical trials perhaps from someone on a video who is very much like me. He can be someone with my condition – someone who has gone through a trial, and talk about how his concerns were addressed, what his fears were and what the benefits of participation were. That, I think, is a much more convincing way to learn about a trial than an ad in a newspaper or even a discussion with a clinical person. Video can't replace the medical professional, but it sure can get my interest and perhaps trust to make recruitment much easier.
So I was heartened when I discovered that Pfizer has begun a YouTube channel with the aim of effective clinical trial recruitment. It is called PfizerClinicalTeam and it was begun in July 2009, however its most recent video was posted in April, 2010, presenting clinical researchers discussing a new study of schizophrenia.
The channel is not well socialized – meaning it has not sought links to other channels or subscribed to many others. It might increase the traffic and subscribers to the site (it only has 12) if it were linked to other YouTube channels that involve research, such as the British Medical Journal, which has nearly 10,000 channel views and 324 subscribers, or the New England Journal of Medicine channel which has had over 14,000 channel views and has 611 subscribers. A plan for socialization could improve traffic and subscriptions.
It is a good step to bring information to clinical trials prospects via video and one that, at least from this quarter, is welcomed.
my thoughts exactly. You cant just put a made for tv ad on youtube and call it “social media”. People also have the right to turn this stuff off if its not engaging or comes across as a sales pitch. Also, using people who are obviously actors to play trial participants (in other videos not Pfizer’s) is shameful. More videos need to be created with the goal of educating people about studies, NOT just trying to enroll them.
I’d be interested in partnering with FH to distribute patient recruitment video on my SiteCloud Video Ad Network Aggregator service. Launched in January, we’ve completed some pt recruitment ad pilots to show responsiveness to the medium, and we are scaling to include up to 200K TVs with audio and non-audio capabilities.