Clinical trials in Parkinson’s disease  have traditionally used mass media to advertise for clinical trials.  Transitioning to social media may be more advantageous for timely recruitment.  

At our institute, a recruitment committee provided guidelines to optimize social media use for clinical trial enrollment.

Social media as compared to mass media is quick, cost effective and reaches a targeted audience worldwide. Social media interface allows measurability of viewership and tracks progress of potential participants, from screening to enrollment. It allows participants to express immediate interest by completing prescreening questionnaire. Social media platforms directly approach users with relevant trial information while browsing their user profile.

Recommendations for sites and sponsors:

• 1. Adequate budget earmarked for designing, regulatory approval and advertising for clinical trials on social media.

• 2.Review social media sites to identify online patient communities.

• 3. Sponsors may interact with patient advocacy groups via social media and discussion boards to post press releases and provide links to clinical trial information. They may regularly post e- newsletters to keep patients engaged.

• 4. Advertising on Google, Facebook and YouTube with web links to the clinical trial website.

• 5. Implement a twitter campaign aimed at raising research awareness.

• 6. Identify key hashtags and regular online disease state chats, which can help design patient friendly  social media content.

• 7. Use disease state blogs to plan effective recruitment campaigns.

• 8. Sponsors can collaborate to create disease specific clinical trial applications which features all ongoing clinical trials in that area.