← All case studies Case Study

Case Study: Gulf War Illness

Problem Statement

Gulf War Illness (GWI) is a rare disease diagnosed in US Desert Storm veterans due to their exposures to toxins during their deployment. Due to the rarity and idiosyncratic nature of GWI, it is underdiagnosed and patients have been historically difficult to recruit for clinical trials.

Our Client

We partnered with a major research center within the Mount Sinai Hospital system in New York City. They had received a grant from the Department of Defense to study a treatment for GWI-related pain. 2 years into the recruitment phase of the trial, they had only enrolled 20 patients, 25% of their goal. The grant had been extended twice and was in danger of cancellation.

Our Approach

We engaged the local veteran community in New York City using 3 approaches:

Existing patients in the client network
Scraping social media pages
Tapping our database of patients

Once engaged, we provided these veterans with sharing tools to reach their extended network, connecting them with resources and, if eligible, our client’s clinical trial.

Results

We helped 3,256 Gulf War veterans in 3 months and 1,700 veterans shared our campaign in New York City, resulting in 165 eligible and interested veterans screened for our client’s clinical trial. Our efforts improved the client’s rate of recruitment by more than 60X per month.

We are truly blown away by our recruitment results since WeHealth joined the team.
— Dr. Gudrun Lange

Traditional Method

Patients recruited: 20
Time: 24 months
Rate per month: 0-1

WeHealth

Patients recruited: 165
Time: 3 months
Rate per month: 50-60

Want results like these for your trial?

Get a free assessment of your recruitment strategy and see how patient ambassadors can accelerate your enrollment.

Get Free Assessment