The Event
A pharmaceutical company, launching a global-wide Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) study, needed to host an investigator meeting (IM) series as well as a recruitment training series.
The Challenge
Given the large scale of the study, combined with the challenges of the pandemic, the client needed to proceed with the investigator meetings and recruitment trainings while also providing flexibility and accessibility to site staff and sites involved in the study.
Due to the complexity of this study involving OCD, the specialized training involved the interaction and management of patients from initial communication throughout the lifecycle of patient care and the many touchpoints in between. In order to maximize the patient recruitment capabilities, it was imperative to make comprehensive training accessible to every staff person at every site who interacts with the patient at each touchpoint, in addition to the HCPs, site coordinators and principal investigators.
This was the client’s first fully virtual event series; they needed guidance from the Miller Tanner Associates team to plan and execute these meeting series to ensure accommodation of multiple time zones including North America, Canada, and Europe.
The Solution
The Miller Tanner Associates team worked with the client to determine their goals and created a thorough strategy to execute multiple virtual meeting series for the investigator meetings and the patient recruitment training as well as an on-demand training option through VALTs, (Virtual Assessment Learning and Training Source), MTA’s proprietary learning management system, for those unable to attend the live sessions. By offering multiple meeting options, attendees could choose based on their availability, enabling a higher participation among those invited.
- Because recruitment was integral to the study, MTA planned four branded 2-1/2 hour recruitment meetings for U.S. and Canada sites with focus on implementation of recruitment strategy, patient interviews, explanation of illness and symptoms, and patient retention.
- For the investigator meeting series, we planned four branded strategic, 4-hour meetings to disseminate protocol overview and education for U.S. and Canada sites.
- European investigator meeting will be offered later in the year.
- To further maximize both meeting series, our team created a branded training portal within VALTs to accommodate all participants who could not participate in the scheduled dates of the study series. The benefits included:
- Extend the training to additional site staff members who would normally not attend the investigator meeting (i.e. additional sub-investigators / study coordinators, recruitment specialists, chief pharmacist, etc.)
- Create roles-specific modules within the training content
- To use as a refresher for those who did attend
- To train new site staff throughout the life of the study
To maintain the efficiency and efficacy for the study team, both the IM and the recruitment meeting series were live streamed events with pre-recorded content. MTA provided speaker coaching, remote recording, and editing of the remote pre-recorded content.
Additionally, MTA designed and implemented brand uniformity throughout the VALTs study portal, vendor portal, and the landing page of the virtual platform used for the meeting series. The landing page featured speakers’ bios to be repurposed for use within VALTs.
The pre-recorded captures were live streamed using an elevated virtual platform. To create a more engaging virtual experience, the speakers and moderator provided live Q&A throughout the meetings. These sessions were then repurposed within VALTs.
Results
- Most notable outcome is the significant increase in recruitment capability as a result of using VALTs for repurposed content; recruitment training can be made, with version control, accessible and available to anyone who interacts directly with the patients, beginning with the point of initial contact, providing a broader baseline training.
- This strategy expanded recruitment training from 3 site contacts to more than 15 contacts per site, with unique role-based learning plans. Because this training is captured within VALTs, anyone trained can submit questions directly to the trainer/speaker. Using VALTs also allows content to be used as a refresher or for onboarding of new staff joining the sites. Our client was excited to have this capability that expands beyond the limitations of a face-to-face training that is typically limited to principal investigators, site coordinators, and HCPs.
- Our team selected an elevated experience platform for the virtual event that seamlessly supported both the prerecorded and live segments of the event, enhanced engagement opportunities, and optimized the playback quality.
- MTA’s thoughtful strategy to leverage the strengths of VALTs significantly improved the recruitment training leading to a more successful, effective recruitment process with expanded reach and ROI.
Need to expand your training? Contact us to learn more about VALTs.
