Snapshot
COUCH Health partnered with a pharmaceutical company that were initiating a post-marketing clinical trial in atopic dermatitis (eczema) in people from melanated communities. The mid-size biotech wanted to gain insights, understand lived experiences, and anticipate barriers to participating in clinical research from individuals with melanated skin tones with eczema to ensure their study materials resonated with their target audience. COUCH Health gathered insights from focus groups to inform the co-creation of study branding and materials.
Problem
Participation in clinical studies among people from melanated communities is often low due to study materials lacking relevance or cultural sensitivity to their specific needs and perspectives, leading to reluctance to enrol. Critical patient insights are often overlooked or introduced too late in study development, leading to irrelevant branding, imagery, and messaging that may overlook or offend people from melanated communities.
Strategy
COUCH Health conducted a 3 step co-creation strategy to tailor branding and patient-facing materials to individuals with Black and Brown skin tones who have eczema, with the aim of increasing recruitment rates for the clinical study.
1. Conducted an online co-creation focus group with people eligible for the study to gather insights on clinical study perceptions, lived experiences, and feedback on initial branding and material concepts.
2. Coordinated a patient review task on the branding and materials amended following focus group feedback to ensure participants’ insights were correctly understood and suitably translated into design and copy formats.
3. Presented an insights report summarising focus group and review task findings, detailing the rationale for amending imagery, copy, and design and providing suggestions for building trust and sharing information within the community throughout the study recruitment strategy.
