Research Article
An Agent-Based Approach to Real-Time Patient Identification for Clinical Trials
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_20, author={Gareth Tyson and Adel Taweel and Simon Miles and Michael Luck and Tjeerd Staa and Brendan Delaney}, title={An Agent-Based Approach to Real-Time Patient Identification for Clinical Trials}, proceedings={Electronic Healthcare. 4th International Conference, eHealth 2011, M\^{a}laga, Spain, November 21-23, 2011, Revised Selected Papers}, proceedings_a={E-HEALTH}, year={2012}, month={5}, keywords={}, doi={10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_20} }- Gareth Tyson
Adel Taweel
Simon Miles
Michael Luck
Tjeerd Staa
Brendan Delaney
Year: 2012
An Agent-Based Approach to Real-Time Patient Identification for Clinical Trials
E-HEALTH
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_20
Abstract
Patient recruitment for clinical trials is expensive and has been a significant challenge, with many trials not achieving their recruitment goals. One method that shows promise for improving recruitment is the use of interactive prompts that inform practitioners of patient eligibility for clinical trials during consultation. This paper presents the ePCRN-IDEA recruitment system, which utilises an agent-based infrastructure to enable real-time recruitment of patients. In essence, whenever patients enter a clinic, the system compares their details against eligibility criteria, which define the requirements of active clinical trials. If a patient is found to be eligible, a prompt is raised to notify the user. In this way, it becomes possible for recruitment to take place quickly in a cost effective manner, whilst maintaining patient trust through the involvement of their own health care practitioner.
