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Case Study: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

Problem Statement

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) has an unknown root cause, and may include environmental or genetic factors. Up to 90% of patients are undiagnosed and there is no approved treatment for this condition. However, some symptoms can be treated or managed to provide relief.

We partnered with a major sleep center in New York City. They were unable to recruit a single patient in the first year of enrollment due to the fact that all diagnosed patients were on disqualifying medications.

Our Approach

We launched a campaign to raise awareness and build a community in New York City for undiagnosed women with CFS symptoms using 4 approaches:

Existing patients in the client network
Partnering with advocates to build a new support community
Raising awareness using targeted messaging and social networks
Scraping social media pages

By focusing on symptoms and offering resources, we engaged a broader population than was previously being reached. As they learned about the campaign, patients screened for and were connected with the clinical trial, growing the referral pipeline ten-fold.

Results

WeHealth connected 3,170 patients with Chronic Fatigue resources in 7 months, several thousand people shared our campaign in New York City, resulting in 116 eligible and interested patients screened for our client’s clinical trial. 9 have been successfully consented with several more in the pipeline awaiting consent. Our efforts improved the client’s rate of recruitment by more than 9X per month.

WeHealth has greatly increased the pace of our recruitment and helped us make up for the initial delay in starting the study. We will continue to rely on this highly effective recruitment avenue going forward.
— Dr. Dikoma Shungu

Traditional Method

Patients recruited: 5
Time: 12 months
Per month: <1

WeHealth

Patients recruited: 116
Time: 12 months
Per month: 9-12

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