The launch of Opin, opens the door to millions of motivated and qualified patients who self-select  and are then matched to clinical trials,  reducing  the cost and time to recruit for  biopharma and medtech companies saving hundreds of millions of dollars

In a major development, artificial intelligence-based digital health company, Opyl (ASX:OPL), unveiled the first of three of its novel AI platforms – Opin, an AI-based platform that matches patients to clinical trials and studies around the world.

For the first time, patients and carers will have the ability to self-select an interest in any clinical trial or research study anywhere in the world, registered with a government regulator that is currently active and recruiting.  Patients get a global view of every open trial and study in a disease area, offering data on the research leaders in the field and the types of trials and studies being undertaken.

This opens the door to more efficient and affordable clinical trial recruitment on a global scale, overcoming the bottle neck of doctors who are the typical gatekeepers, whilst empowering patients to be more informed partners in their own healthcare, in one single website.

 

The Opin platform

Access to the platform is free of charge for the user but is designed to allow Opyl to generate revenue in several ways.

First, Opyl charges a fee to research organisations conducting trials to unlock matched and qualified patients who have self-selected an interest in a specific trial.

In time, as the platform gathers hundreds of thousands possibly millions of registered patients, research organisations will be able to access the data lake to search for matched and qualified patients, giving trials and studies a valuable kick-start to recruitment.

It also generates revenue by offering research organisations the option to have a trial or study featured on the site gaining access to Opin’s experienced clinical trial recruitment social media marketing team and digital marketing tools.

Leveraging social media and digital channels to create awareness of trials and studies is one of the key competitive advantages, aside for a complete global data set of trials, of the Opin platform.

Experts on the Opyl/Opin team have for over five years been leveraging social media and digital marketing strategies to attract and support patient recruitment as a consulting model.

“Improving efficiencies in research, creating greater equity, access and opportunities for patients to become more empowered in their health management is our goal,” said Michelle Gallaher, CEO of Opyl.

The company believes that when patients become genuine partners in their healthcare, and empowered with access to authoritative and trustworthy information and opportunities, it opens the door for them to genuinely participate in decision making, which usually results in improved quality of care, feelings of control and confidence and potentially  their health outcome.

According to Opyl, more than 80 per cent of clinical trials fail to recruit on time and on budget, with each month of delay potentially costing the biopharmaceutical or research institute hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

The cost of recruitment itself is usually between 25-33% of the clinical trial budget and addressing recruitment efficiencies through a platform like Opin could potentially reduce very significant financial waste and precious time in the research sector.

 

AI and predictive analytics technology

The Opin platform also incorporates some of the latest AI and predictive analytics technology that Opyl has been developing, which is aimed at improving the clinical trial design.

The Opin platform is far from finished, with plans to add new contents and more features on the platform. “We are planning to release new features on the Opin platform over the next 18 months, further differentiating it from competitors in the recruitment services sector”, said Gallaher.

Opin joins a number of patient-empowered clinical trial recruitment platforms in the global market.  Competing against the industry giants like TrialFacts, ClinLife and Antidote and local new entrants such as ClinTrialRefer and HealthMatch, differentiating user features and patient data capture strategies via social media will be the battle ground upon which these platforms will compete.

“We are working to an agile development methodology, which means that what you see today is the foundation of the platform functioning well and delivering the primary value for users that we envisioned. There is much more development around features for patients, doctors and research organisations, predictive and modelling tools, information-rich content and data optimisation still to be released.”

“This is our key priority in the business for the foreseeable future,” she added.

The Opin brand is only the first in a planned series of platform brands under the Opyl brand  banner.

This article was developed in collaboration with Opyl, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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