The New Patient Recruitment – AI to Identify Patients and AI to Action Patients Into the Recruitment Process

In our previous blogs, we’ve written a lot about how artificial intelligence (AI) can, and already is, transforming patient recruitment for clinical trials. And it’s true – that’s why we’ve built the BEKplatform. But while advanced AI technologies help identify potential participants for clinical research, many sites still struggle to act quickly enough to convert those matches into enrolled patients. The good news is that AI can help accelerate this critical step in clinical trial recruitment.

The Perishable Nature of Recruitment Leads

Getting new participants from interested to screened to enrolled is far from easy. These patient matches are incredibly fragile. Once a potential match is identified, the clock starts ticking. Every moment that passes without follow-up increases the likelihood of losing that lead. If a patient expresses interest or matches the study criteria, but there’s a delay in contacting them, their interest may fade, they may enroll in another study, or their eligibility may change.

This underscores a fundamental truth: it’s not enough to simply identify a potential match; action must be taken immediately.

When patients churn out of the recruitment process, it’s often because the follow-up was too slow or incomplete. A delay of even a few days can lead to lost opportunities. The faster you act, the higher your chances of converting them into a study participant. BEKhealth has long excelled at producing high-quality patient matches through their technology, but sites sometimes falter at the critical follow-up stage. That’s why our recently announced partnership with Areti Health is so transformative.

From Identification to Action

The BEKhealth-Areti Health partnership is designed to close the gap between identifying a patient and reaching out to them. The BEKplatform identifies potential patients using advanced algorithms, filtering through vast amounts of data to produce high-quality matches. The moment a match is made, Areti’s AI Coordinator steps in, automating the follow-up process to ensure no clinically qualified match is wasted. For busy or overworked site coordinators, this partnership is a game changer. Many coordinators, by nature of their workloads, need to focus on “bottom of funnel” tasks, like consenting, final screening, and enrolling. However, they often struggle to find the time to work the “top of funnel” tasks that are of equal importance and serve as the life blood of the overall recruitment process.

AI Coordinator takes over the time-consuming task of reaching out to the patient, qualifying interest and intent, scheduling follow-ups, and maintaining engagement. This allows site coordinators to focus on what they do best while ensuring no patient is left behind.

Conclusion

BEKhealth and Areti Health have joined forces to provide clinical trial site networks and research sponsors with the ability to harness AI to find more eligible patients and then convert and randomize patients much more efficiently. BEKplatform and AI Coordinator work together to make sure that more patients who can benefit from clinical trials have the shortest, most straightforward path to enrollment.

For site coordinators, the system offers relief from the constant pressure of managing both the top and bottom of the recruitment funnel. For clinical trial sponsors and CROs, it offers peace of mind, knowing that every patient lead is being actioned quickly and efficiently.

We are all seeking ways to be faster and more efficient, and AI will continue to be critical as we seek to drive clinical trial recruitment forward. But it’s important to keep in mind that AI can not only help us to analyze high volumes of data in order to more effectively target potential patients, it can also provide a path for patients that makes it easier for them to journey from the point of initial interest in study participation to being enrolled in a trial.