The Value of AI Agents in Clinical Trial Recruitment

IMA Clinical Research President and CEO, Mark Weinberger, Ph.D, met with Grove AI to discuss the outcomes of the deployment of Grace, an AI agent for clinical trial operations. IMA Clinical Research recently piloted the use of Grace at seven of the sites in their site network for a phase 3 cardiometabolic trial for a large pharmaceutical sponsor. Grace is bringing clinical trials some much-needed speed and cost reduction and delivering more personalized, on-demand digital experiences for participants.

The communications include phone calls, text messages, and emails to accomplish tasks such as screening participants and then making and reminding individuals about their on-site screening appointments. Grove’s AI Participant Relationship Management works “behind the scenes” to surface critical trial insights in real-time, enabling research teams to make data-driven actions on screening and enrollment.

Grove AI did “a phenomenal job” with enrollments in the first 30 days of the pilot study. Grove’s success is grounded in its ability to engage participants exactly when they are most likely to respond, 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week. Initial prescreening calls happen instantly when individuals express an interest in a clinical trial after learning about it on social media. Outbound prescreening calls are also made to people who have previously registered their interest.

In addition to accelerating existing clinical trials, Grace is powering efforts to set the foundation for upcoming research opportunities. IMA Clinical Research just launched another trial with Grove AI, this one a gastrointestinal preventive screening study. Grove AI is helping to build up the pool of willing study participants for many of IMA’s sites, giving them more of a “fully vetted patient database” to tap into when enrolling people in future clinical trials.

“Given the changing technology landscape, I think clinical research sites need to be open-minded about new ways of doing things,” says Dr. Weinberger in talking about the partnership with Grove AI.

More outcomes from this pilot study shared in the full article: AI Agent Speeds Up Trials with Instant, Personalized Participant Interactions