How do you find cancer patients?
As horrible a group of diseases as cancer is, there have been great improvements in treatments over the past few years. We can see this interest directly, as we have recruited for 943 cancer patient projects since we began in 2013.
You may know, our usual method for finding patients is by going in person to patient events. For cancer patients, we have another wonderful source. It is WhatNext.com. It is a great website for cancer patients and their caregivers to share opinions, experiences, ask questions, etc. Please visit WhatNext.com and check it out.
I was introduced to David Wasilewski, founder of WhatNext, shortly after starting Rare Patient Voice. We have partnered ever since. Developed in part with the American Cancer Society, WhatNext uses matching algorithms to connect people to highly relevant peers, firsthand experiences and American Cancer Society resources. I think of it as a Facebook for cancer patients and their caregivers.
Through WhatNext we collect very good information confidentially from patients – cancer type, sub-type, stage, mutation type in many cases, date of diagnosis, age, location, etc., so that we can estimate our cancer responses accurately and target the right study to the right cancer patient. These patients have opted in for research, and many are very interested in expressing their opinion through our surveys. So we invite them to participate when we have cancer studies.
We’ve had a great partnership with WhatNext for over 5 years and we are happy to let your clients enjoy the fruits of that partnership.
