DrFirst, a provider of electronic prescribing, integrated medication management and secure communication for healthcare has acquired Duluth, GA-based VisibilityRx, a provider of clinical trial recruitment services to life sciences, clinical research organizations and pharmacies. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
For DrFirst, the acquisition provides 60,000 physician clients the ability to easily identify and refer their patients to the latest clinical trials and expands VisibilityRx’s capacity for connecting patients to clinical trial recruitment beyond its traditional pharmacy-centric approach. Patient recruitment costs account for a hefty 32% of clinical trials budgets, according to a Cutting Edge Information study. The combined DrFirst and VisibilityRx solution will help researchers manage these costs through the powerful provider-patient relationship to deliver relevant information about new trials and qualification requirements. Using advanced patient matching, these details are delivered to the provider at the point of encounter, thus accelerating the trial enrollment process, increasing efficiencies and expanding patient treatment options.
The current VisibilityRx technology utilizes the relationships consumers have with their retail pharmacies to facilitate the matching of patients with relevant clinical trials. This method has proven effective in raising patient awareness of clinical trials and similar opportunities. By making physicians – and by extension the patient – aware of these opportunities at the point of encounter, DrFirst creates additional opportunities for improving the clinical trial enrollment process.
“Coordinated communications at the point of care and throughout the patient’s prescription experience are essential in the patient care process,” said Joe Rector, president of VisibilityRx. “An additional benefit of VisibilityRx is that it provides DrFirst’s life sciences partners new points of engagement during the patient’s prescription lifetime, enabling them to reinforce critical information with patients. We are excited to join DrFirst and look forward to making VisibilityRx available to a wider variety of end-users.”