Patients Know Best (PKB) is excited to announce a new partnership with Sano Genetics to streamline and accelerate clinical trial recruitment processes, launching their first collaborative project to support a Parkinson’s disease trial. By leveraging coded GP data alongside targeted digital banner functionality, the initiative enables patients who match trial criteria to securely view trial information in the PKB platform and opt in, bringing a more democratic, patient-led approach to medical research.

Finding eligible participants for clinical trials is notoriously slow and challenging, creating significant delays in bringing new treatments to those who need them most. Securely matching eligible patients to clinical trials and observational studies via citizen-mediated data sharing dramatically speeds up this process. The approach removes traditional friction, putting individuals in control of their health data while opening up new avenues to participate in life-changing studies.

PKB offers end-to-end clinical support across four key stages of the trial journey. During the initial recruitment phase, relevant trial details are displayed to matching patients via information banners.  These are viewed by patients in PKB’s web based solution and directly in the NHS App, giving patients the agency to self-initiate data sharing. In the screening phase, digital questionnaires help evaluate potential recruits efficiently. To ensure participants remain engaged during what can often be long waiting periods prior to trial commencement, the platform works to retain individuals by offering care plans, educational libraries, and helpful resources. Once the trial begins, ongoing support can be maintained through direct messaging and interactive care plan tools.

Sano Genetics is a UK-based precision medicine technology company that helps life sciences organisations run clinical research more efficiently, connecting patient recruitment, genetic and biomarker testing, study management and long-term participant engagement. The Sano platform unifies these steps into a modular, compliant, and data-rich solution.

Sano is initially deploying PKB’s recruitment capability for its current Parkinson’s trial. The direct matching using coded data enables Sano Genetics to understand which participants are potentially eligible for the trial.  These patients are then shown a banner.  If interested, the patient can then share their record for Sano Genetics to verify eligibility and invite them to order a cost-free genetic test. There are plans to leverage the fuller platform functionality for trials going forward to support pre-screening and engagement where retention rates for long term trials are imperative.

Early indications show strong interest and uptake, with over 140 patients expressing interest within a month of the banner going live. 

Elly Aylwin-Foster, Clinical and Advocacy Partnerships Lead at Sano Genetics said: “Traditional participant identification methods are often incompatible with clinical trials in rare conditions: which require targeted and individualised screening and cost effective methods of communicating with participants at the right time and place. Working with organisations such as Patients Know Best to give each eligible individual the choice to participate in clinical research on their terms is exactly the right thing to do.”

Dr Mohammad Al Ubaydli, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Patients Know Best, commented: "As someone with a rare long-term condition myself, clinical trials are a personal mission, and I am delighted we can now support Sano with this vital work. Patients Know Best has been working with both the NHS and private organisations to connect people directly with care and research opportunities, and we want to do more to ensure every patient has the chance to participate."