Rideshare: Taking the clinical trial industry by storm

Originally published on the Greenphire website prior to the merger with Suvoda in 2025.

A Patient-Centric Approach to Transportation

Clinical trials are critical to bringing new treatments and medications to market – however, enrolling and retaining the appropriate number of participants within the desired patient population is essential to study success. Herein lies the issue, as getting participants to the clinic has proven to be a key challenge, often resulting in missed appointments or dropping out of the trial altogether. There are many potential drivers for this dilemma – participant does not have their own mode of transportation / license, does not have access to public transportation, or cannot afford to front the money for gas / tolls / taxi – but how is this issue being addressed?

The new age transportation method, Rideshare, is growing in popularity amongst everyday travelers, but has also been found to provide significant advantages for clinical trials. This curb-to-curb ride service is enabled through a technology platform, allowing for study coordinators to book a ride for participants in real-time or schedule a ride for later. Rideshare removes the logistical and financial burden from participants; the stress of finding a transportation method is eliminated along with the associated out-of-pocket costs (funded directly by the sponsor). Ultimately, the participant is provided with peace-of-mind while the site is empowered with the ability to ensure a timely arrival for their visit.

10 Benefits of Utilizing Rideshare Through an Expert Provider in Clinical Workflow Optimization

It’s hard to deny the value that rideshare brings to both participants and sites through its convenience and efficiency. But what if we told you there is a way to further enhance these benefits for clinical research – ensuring regulatory compliance and integration with clinical workflows. By implementing Rideshare through a technology provider whose sole concentration is optimizing financial and logistical workflows for clinical trials, sponsors/CROs and sites can do just that. Through clinical workflow automation technology, additional rideshare benefits can be realized:

• Blinded Reporting – With a core focus on ensuring participant data security and anonymity, financial reporting can be completely blinded of any participant PII
• Rideshare / Reimbursement Integration – Ride booking workflow is integrated into technology that includes and centralizes ride requests, reimbursements workflow, financial analytics and budget
• Singular Portal Login – For those sites already utilizing the reimbursements workflow, they can benefit from a single login to also access rideshare rather than logging into a separate portal
• No Duplicate Data Entry – Once a participant’s demographic information has been entered into the system for a ride, that data will be saved for future ride requests, eliminating duplicative efforts and ensuring a seamless workflow

• Financial / Ride Control – Capability to put limits on the car type, distance allowed, etc. based on agreed upon terms / policy requirements

• Single Vendor Contract – Sponsor / CRO does not have to contract directly with the rideshare vendor as this is covered by the clinical workflow automation provider

• Single Issuance / Invoicing – Rather than having separate issuance funds and invoices for rideshare / transportation and reimbursements, this is combined into a single issuance fund and invoicing process

• Scalability – Ability to scale to any study size as well as any number of studies, flexible to meet enterprise volume / policies / requirements

• Additional Expense Reimbursement – Along with enabling pre-funded participant rides via rideshare, additional expenses / transportation modes can be reimbursed and tracked through the same portal

• Dedicated Support – Sponsors/CROs and sites have access to an expert support team, specifically dedicated to and familiar with clinical trials and participant, site, sponsor/CRO needs

Ultimately, implementing rideshare through a provider with an expertise in clinical trials will bring efficiency for all stakeholders. Participants and sites are at the heart of clinical research. Ensuring patient satisfaction is key to retention and empowering sites by streamlining operational workflows will strengthen the site/sponsor/CRO relationship and fuel a better clinical trial experience.