Welcome to the course!

Course structure

This course is divided into 5 separate sections(including this one). Sections 2, 3, and 4 each contain 2 lessons, which will cover a series of topics. The overall course is divided into sections, lessons, and topics, with the content covered being:

• 1. Welcome to the course!
• 2. General Principles
  • 2.1. First steps into Social Media
    • 2.1.1. The Transformative Effects of Social Media
    • 2.1.2. An Introduction to Advertising Online
    • 2.1.3. Platform Choice and Sign-up Process
  • 2.2. Campaigns in Context
    • 2.2.1. GCP Guidance on Patient Recruitment
    • 2.2.2. Campaign Strategy
    • 2.2.3. Planning your Campaign
• 3. Getting Your Campaign Approved
  • 3.1. Guidelines and Requirements
    • 3.1.1. The Review Process
    • 3.1.2. HREC and RGO Submissions
    • 3.1.3. Review of Social Media Guidelines
  • 3.2. Generating Campaign Material
    • 3.2.1. Drafting Social Media Advertising
    • 3.2.2. Setting Up a Trial Information Page
    • 3.2.3. Preparing for HREC / RGO submissions
    • 3.2.4. Preparing Your Social Media Policy
    • 3.2.5. Preparing Your Social Media Plan
• 4. Understanding the Campaign
  • 4.1. Campaign Setup and Maintenance
    • 4.1.1. Common Campaign Types and Structure
    • 4.1.2. Setting Up and Launching Your Campaign
    • 4.1.3. Understanding Campaign Metrics
    • 4.1.4. Assessing Campaign Performance
  • 4.2. Patient Interactions and Engagement
    • 4.2.1. Public Interactions on Social Media
    • 4.2.2. Communicating Outside Social Media
• 5. Final Words

Course navigation

You can see the various lessons in the sidebar on the left. This can be used to navigate quickly between lessons and see what is coming up. You can also navigate using the context-dependent  ‘Next Lesson’ and ‘Mark Complete’ buttons at the top of the page.

In order to complete this course, you will need to watch each video, read the lesson text, and successfully submit each quiz. The course is video-centric, with supporting points or more detailed explanations contained within the text. You must complete lessons and quizzes in order, as earlier lessons will inform later ones. Some lessons will have quizzes at the end of them, and some topics will have downloadable materials and activities.  By completing all the content in this course, you will be awarded with a certificate of completion.

IMPORTANT: Where a lesson or topic mentions a downloadable activity or resource, you can find it in the materials “lesson” directly after this one.

The recruitment problem in brief

In the above video, we begin with a brief introduction to the current clinical trial landscape and how that has informed the course material.

Trials are becoming larger and more expensive due to:

• Stricter eligibility requirements
• More complex study design
• Increasing number of trials
• More arms/treatments/cohorts

These all necessitate a certain inflow of individuals to be screened and randomised. Most clinical trials do not meet this requirement!

A successful campaign should be:

• Quick to set up
• Targeted at relevant individuals
• Cost-effective
• Flexible

These will improve various aspects at your Trial Site / clinical trial:

• Recruitment rate
• Retention of participants
• Free up resources for other use
• Adhere to regulations

Keep these fundamentals in mind as you progress through the course.

Who we are

Briefly, who are the course creators and what do they bring to the table?

• Luke Edington (luke.edington@datapharmaustralia.com): Clinical projects manager, clinical monitoring team leader at Datapharm Australia. Part of the AustralianClinicalTrials.com Team specialising in site selection, feasibility, and study startup.
• Gabriel Vigano (gabriel.vigano@datapharmaustralia.com): Clinical data associate, programmer, and statistician at Datapharm Australia + part of the AustralianClinicalTrials.com Team

Combined 20+ years of experience in clinical trials, and even more utilising social media to its fullest.

• Datapharm Australia: Australia’s original full-service CRO that has assisted with hundreds of clinical trials in all phases and areas, from start to finish
• AustralianClinicalTrials.com: A platform which allows any Trial Site to have an online presence by way of free online Trial Site profile and free clinical trial information pages.