Opyl joins forces with two key patient advocate groups

Opyl has partnered with two leading patient advocate groups in an important move for its flagship trial recruitment program Opin.

Medtech Opyl (ASX:OPL) has announced it has signed partnerships with NeuroEndocrine Cancer Australia and Pancare Foundation, two leading advocates for a large patient community with neuroendocrine and upper GI tract cancers.

Opyl said relationships with patient advocates support expansion and success of Opin, the company’s rapidly growing global clinical trial recruitment platform.

Advocate groups enable access to patient communities online respectfully, ethically, and appropriately and can therefore accelerate recruitment to trials via Opin.

They are particularly beneficial for access to patients with rare and aggressive cancers where trials may provide a very significant treatment benefit, particularly for those with life limiting conditions.

A relationship with Opin, ensures that Neuroendocrine Cancer Australia and Pancare Foundation’s patient communities are aware of every active, relevant clinical trial.

It means patients are given every opportunity to participate in those trials and ensures they can access the newest medicines and diagnostics in development.

Opin to advocate for more trials in Australia

Under the agreements, the Opin team will advocate, alongside patient communities, to attract more cancer trials and research investment to Australia, particularly trials for therapies and diagnostics addressing rare and aggressive cancers.

Opyl CEO Michelle Gallaher said the team will also apply for joint grants, publish papers, and develop patient co-design opportunities to improve clinical trial design and recruitment service delivery.

Patient advocates will provide vital user-experience expertise helping refine and enhance functionality for the Opin.ai front-end platform.

“Our approach is to ensure Opin is genuinely of value to patients and to do this we need their input into our technology and service design,” Gallaher said.

“The Opin clinical trial recruitment team are very excited to work with Neuroendocrine Cancer Australia and Pancare Foundation.

“I think we have a lot to learn from and offer each other.”

Patients play vital role in development of health technologies

Creating an opportunity for patients and carers to contribute to the design of health technologies ensures that the solution is fit for purpose and most likely to be adopted and used, reducing risk and amplifying value.

Co-design is a concept that ensures the end user is included in the design and development of new technologies or services.

Patients and carers are rarely included in the design of new and developing health technologies, but Opin is hoping to ensure its does part to give them a strong voice.

The partnerships with the patient advocacy organisations come after Opyl announced in April it had signed two new clinical trial recruitment contracts.

The contracts further validate the Opin platform’s ability to leverage its social media channels and global reach to recruit patients for key medical trials.

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.