The Clinical Alliance for Research and Education – Infectious Disease (CARE-ID) is a boutique clinical research organization (CRO) affiliated with the IDP Infectious Diseases Physicians, Inc. medical practice located in Northern Virginia.
Trestle Point began working with CARE-ID in 2015 to revamp and upgrade its prior website. CARE-ID conducts clinical research trials in the field of infectious diseases with particular focus on: participant safety and confidentiality, quality of data, and integrity of results. It partners with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to develop experimental therapies for both the prevention and treatment of a range of infectious diseases.
- Challenge
In July of 2020, CARE-ID was engaged by 2 pharmaceutical companies to undertake 2, simultaneous, fast track clinical trials supporting the rapid development of COVID-19 therapeutics. The requirements to partner with these companies was unlike anything CARE-ID had undertaken previously. First, the timelines were the most aggressive ever experienced. Second, the studies, while overlapping in time frame, had to be isolated from each other to avoid exposing recently diagnosed COVID-19 patients participating in the treatment trial to non-infected volunteers for the vaccine trial. Third, CARE-ID was challenged to create community awareness, promote its trials and attract volunteers like never before.
- Assistance Provided
Trestle Point, given its hands-on experience with the CARE-ID website and the group’s basic operations, offered to provide the needed support immediately when contacted. An action plan was quickly scoped out to provide a multi-pronged marketing support effort. This included: updating the website’s topline and supporting headline messages, expansion of the website to provide a “news” page for regular updates, inclusion of an on-line studies enrollment application connected to the website, upgrading graphics for the Facebook page, and planning and executing Facebook and Google AdWords advertising campaigns. Additionally, these support efforts were all monitored using both Facebook and Google analytical tools in order to judge progress and effectiveness.
- Outcome/Client Assessment
In the 2 months since the support effort got underway, website traffic has grown 7-fold with particularly strong activity directed toward the detailed information page covering the 2 clinical studies and the news updates posted to the site. Additionally, allotted advertising dollars have been well directed based on the resulting impressions and responses to the specific actions intended. On the Facebook side of the program, people reached grew from double digits to over 15,000 with a similar increase in post engagements designed to create awareness and stimulate viewers to learn more and volunteer for the respective studied. For Google Ads, the campaign generated nearly 74,000 impressions and nearly 400 clicks. Given the highly focused geographic and time parameters set, both the Facebook and Google results met or exceeded expectations. The reach and economies of the focused marketing have proven thus far to be highly valuable to the CARE-ID effort in fielding these important clinical studies.