US-based business-information specialist CenterWatch is extending the reach of its Clinical Trials Listing Service through a partnership with Study Scavenger, which offers a free smartphone app to help potential study participants search for clinical-research opportunities.
Launched last year, Study Scavenger is a bilingual (English and Spanish) app for subject recruitment that currently serves research centres across the US.
The business has also forged strategic partnerships with Verified Clinical Trials, the US-based company set up to combat dual study enrolment, and with early-phase clinical research website JALR.org (Just Another Lab Rat).
The Study Scavenger technology enables potential volunteers to identify clinical trials by location or through an advanced-search feature that tailors by age, zip code, health conditions, distance willing to travel, and requested stipend.
The smartphone app is being translated into Japanese, Russian and Chinese to facilitate global utilisation.
Listing service
CenterWatch launched its Clinical Trials Listing Service (CTLS) in 1994 to provide both patients and healthcare providers with a central location for finding clinical studies.
The service is now considered to be the largest online database of industry-funded global clinical trials, CenterWatch said.
CTLS already employs a wide range of distribution channels, including patient eAlerts, social media and collaborative relationships with health associations.
App boom
Over the past five years, mobile-app use worldwide has increased at a rate of 251%, outpacing the growth of stationary internet use by a factor of 15, Study Scavenger noted, adding: “Potential research volunteers are a component of this massive growth”.
Kerri Weingard, founder and chief executive officer of Study Scavenger as well as chief operating officer of Verified Clinical Trials, said CenterWatch’s “dedication to high-quality service and study posting is exactly what the research industry needs in a mobile environment”.
