March 4, 2025
“Clinical trials are a critical access point to innovation and science for patients, which is more important than ever,” said Kristin Cahill, Global CEO of GCI Health, when introducing the agency’s first Inspired Exchanges session for 2025. An internal information-sharing platform featuring GCI Health’s global practice leads, Inspired Exchanges delivers insightful conversations that connect to critical areas of health. In this installment, Cahill spoke with Matt Graffeo, Managing Director, Global Digital and Clinical Trial Communications, and Kianta Key, Group Senior Vice President, about their pivotal roles in shaping GCI Health’s Clinical Trial Recruitment practice.
In a discussion that flowed between topics like how culturally resonant communications build trust and drive recruitment, the role of predictive AI and influential voices in messaging and the future of inclusivity in trial outreach, GCI Health’s team shared invaluable information with their global colleagues.
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“What I appreciate most about our Clinical Trial Recruitment practice is that it embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of our agency and our belief that great ideas can come from anywhere,” said Cahill. “This offering grew out of recognition of a gap in the market and has blossomed into one of our most successful practice areas.”
Matt Graffeo shared his unconventional entry into the world of clinical trials, drawing parallels between recruiting for a coffee club and finding participants for groundbreaking medical research. He discovered that clinical operations teams were often relying on outdated methods, like flyers and cold calls, and he immediately recognized the opportunity to apply the lessons he learned recruiting coffee drinkers.
“In some cases, patients were even getting cold calls to join a trial after they’d been diagnosed,” Graffeo shared, noting that new strategies were long overdue.
Kianta Key highlighted her “aha” moment. Working to recruit older adults for a trial, her recommendation to leverage Facebook was met with skepticism about an older demographic using social media. However, testing proved otherwise, affirming the dangers of assumptions. “That experience sparked this idea we had,” said Key. “By using data to uncover our audience’s media consumption and reflecting the many layers of identity in messaging, we’d be able to reach people more effectively.”
Key Takeaway: Effective inclusive clinical trial recruitment strategies require a data-driven approach to overcome preconceived notions about target audiences and their digital behaviors. Understanding the multifaceted identities of potential participants is crucial for crafting resonant messaging.
Successful Clinical Trials Are an Imperative
Although clinical trials can fail due to safety or efficacy issues, a staggering 50% fail due to enrollment challenges. “This demonstrates the significant business impact of trial failure,” noted Cahill.
Graffeo and Key pointed out that overcoming enrollment hurdles is a critical business imperative, but it’s also a medical imperative to ensure new treatments and therapies work for everyone. “What we’ve seen in the last four or five years is greater willingness to try new things and to use new communications techniques,” said Graffeo.
Key Takeaway: Investing in and modernizing recruitment strategies are essential to significantly impact the success and speed at which life-changing treatments can be brought to market, a win-win for patients and clients.
Ensuring Diversity and Inclusion
Kianta Key spearheaded “Layered: A Report on Black Women’s Perceptions of Clinical Trials,” which dispelled many common assumptions that led to the underrepresentation of Black women in clinical trials. The study revealed that though 73% of Black women had never been asked to participate in a clinical trial, 80% expressed willingness to do so. The study underscored the importance of proactive outreach, rather than relying on assumptions, and culturally sensitive communication to resonate with multicultural audiences.
“The catalyst for the study was actually my mother,” Key explained. “I asked her if she’d ever been asked to participate in a trial, and she said no, but that she would be willing to participate to help future generations.”
The Layered study exposed an opportunity to get clinical trial information into the hands of Black women by identifying their main sources of influence and connecting to those trusted voices, whether that’s a social media influencer, a journalist, a patient advocacy group or a healthcare professional.
Key Takeaway: Tailoring messaging to cultural identities and norms and leveraging trusted voices are essential for fostering trust to accelerate trial diversity.
The Future of Inclusive Trials
Despite the current political climate and pushback on diversity and inclusion efforts, both Graffeo and Key are hopeful that the industry will continue to prioritize diversity. “This was a topic that was talked about a lot at SCOPE,” says Key, referring to the recent Summit for Clinical Ops Executives in February. “The consensus was that having a representative sample of participants will lead to better results, and that leads to better medicine.”
This moment in time was discussed as a boiling point where we need to maintain and increase the temperature to keep advancements moving forward.
Key Takeaway: The commitment to driving inclusion in clinical trials remains. Clinical trials must reflect disease epidemiology, and trial participants need to represent those communities most impacted by a disease or condition.
Future Trends
Graffeo and Key discussed the evolving landscape of clinical trial communications, highlighting the growing importance of real patient testimonials, influencer marketing and AI-powered tools like Decipher Health by Burson, which was created in partnership with AI company Limbik and is offered through PR Studio in WPP Open, WPP’s intelligent marketing operating system powered by AI.
“Leveraging real patients throughout the recruitment journey is extremely important to build trust and authenticity,” said Graffeo. “It’s also good for patients to hear from someone who’s already been on this same journey.”
When supporting clinical trial outreach in global markets, Graffeo noted that it’s important to consider how media consumption habits differ in other countries and to reflect local and cultural nuances in messaging.
Key Takeaway: The future of clinical trial communications lies in embracing scientific innovation and authentic storytelling. By leveraging data-driven insights, cultural sensitivity and cutting-edge technologies, GCI Health is paving the way for more effective and inclusive recruitment strategies.