Why Patient Matching is a Vital Public Policy Priority

Imagine being told your cancer isn't responding to chemotherapy. Your oncologist mentions that there might be some trials out there but offers no road map to find them. You spend the evening staring at Google searches for clinical trials overwhelmed by thousands of results. Most Are different disease stages. Others have closed. Many armed cities you can't afford to reach.

This isn't a hypothetical scenario. Is the daily reality for thousands of patients who exhaust standard treatments and desperately need access to cutting edge research. The bridge between patient and trial exists, but it's crumbling, inaccessible, and fundamentally broken.

The numbers tell a devastating story. 80% of clinical trials failed to meet enrollment deadlines, while 40% of eligible patients say that they would participate if only they knew a relevant trial existed. The problem isn't availability. The problem is discoverability.

When fewer than 3% of eligible cancer patients ever participate in trials, we're not just feeling individuals, we're slowing medical progress for everyone.

Policy failures are creating an impossible maze for patients. Despite the NHI mandate for trial registration, clinicaltrials.gov has inconsistent terminology with no intelligent filtering. Though the proposed clinical trial modernization act (H.R. 3521) would modernize how patients access lab results, it would leave trial discovery in the dark ages. Leaving life-saving information in spaces patients can't ensure access to.

These systematic policy gaps are why the current model is broken. These policy level gaps create barriers to entry through fragmented data infrastructure where trial information is currently scattered across private sponsor portals and academic databases. Public policy has historically favored large academic hubs, leaving patients in rural and under resource areas with virtually no awareness or access of trial happening.

Health Equity means ensuring that every citizen has the same opportunity to achieve their highest level of Health when we fail a clinical trial patient matching, we deny the opportunity to those who have already exhausted standard care treatments

FMCT: Building The Bridge

• At Find My Clinical Trial, we've built what public policies should've created years ago; an intelligent bridge between participants and research to prioritize human need over institutional convenience. Plain language gives us powerful results, patience answers questions about the diagnosis, treatments, and preferences in everyday language. Our algorithm translates this into complex eligibility, criteria of trial protocols, delivering personalized matches, to allow patients to skip weeks of frustrating, fruitless searches.
  
  FMCT is designed for equity, built for varying digital literacy levels, and actively partnering with patient advocacy groups serving under representative populations, where we meet patients where they are, not where convenient for institutions.
  
  Take Action: Join the Movement for Better Clinical Trial Access
  
  At Find My Clinical Trial, we believe that trial discovery should be accessible, personalized and equitable. Whether you're a patient searching for options, a physician looking to better service your patients, or an advocate for healthcare equity, we invite you to be part of that solution.
  
  For Patients: Visit Find My Clinical Trials to create a free profile and discover trails matched to your unique medical situation.The search takes minutes, and it could change your life.
  
  For Physicians: Partner with us to bring intelligent matching tools into your practice. Contact us to learn about our provider portal and integration options.
  
  For Advocates: The policy changes we need won't happen without a collective voice. Share this post, contact your representatives, and join us in building a system where innovation reaches every patient who needs it, not just those fortunate enough to stumble upon it.
  
  Blog written by Tanisha Koncharla
  
  Sources
  
  

• Occa A, Merritt AS, Leip A, Stapleton JL. What influences trust in and understanding of clinical trials? An analysis of information and communication technology use and online health behavior from the Health Information National Trends Survey. Clin Trials. 2024 Feb;21(1):95-113. doi: 10.1177/17407745231204813. Epub 2023 Oct 31. PMID: 37904519; PMCID: PMC10922044.

• Brøgger-Mikkelsen M, Ali Z, Zibert JR, Andersen AD, Thomsen SF. Online Patient Recruitment in Clinical Trials: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Nov 4;22(11):e22179. doi: 10.2196/22179. PMID: 33146627; PMCID: PMC7673977.