The Head of R&D Strategic Operations was challenged to reimagine the clinical trial model to bring trials closer to the REAL way clinical practice happens.
Clinical Trial Modernization Challenge
The Challenge
The head of clinical trials had found that 85% of all clinical trials fail to recruit enough patients, and 80% are delayed due to recruitment problems and high dropout rates.
The result of these recruitment and retainment issues had been a slow and expensive clinical trial process that also lacked diversity in its patient population.
The team needed to identify new ways of reimagining the clinical trial process. In particular, they wanted to develop ways to produce more inviting and accessible trials that are accessible to a wide diversity of participants.
The Approach
We custom designed a two-part workshop series that shepherded the team from starter ideas to testable concepts in a purposeful yet playful experience.
To accomplish this ambitious goal, in the 1st workshop, we brought together a unique group of experts on clinical trials and patient centricity to participate in a panel. The moderated panel served as the first inspiration for ideation.
The second form of inspiration came from our network of external ideators. We designed the workshop model to integrate internal colleagues AND an external network of ideators. The external ideators helped to infuse fresh perspective and ideas into the ideation session.
And 3rd form of inspiration was the use of “Deliberate Metaphors”. We identified metaphors associated to the challenge to generate a set of starter ideas that served as the springboard for further idea development.
The Outcome
The team generated nearly 100 starter concepts of which 5 of the concepts were fast tracked for further development.
Our team coached the working team to make strategic choices on selection 1-2 concepts to be accelerate for experimentation and fast learning.
As of the last check-in, the team was in the process of testing out one of the concepts and were already observing faster and more broadly inclusive clinical trial recruits.