By Allison Proffitt
January 26, 2009 | A new social networking application running on Facebook and MySpace aims to increase awareness of clinical trials. Click It Forward, started by Acurian, is an application that Facebook and MySpace members sign up for, and then disseminate to their friends. As a user’s friends sign up for Click it Forward, Acurian will donate money to one of 20 medical causes chosen by the user.
“It’s a two-fold mission,” says Scott Conner, Acurian’s Vice President of Marketing. Acurian currently has a database of over 50 million individuals who have signed up to get more information about clinical trials. The first goal of Click It Forward is to “grow more acute indications… and build channels to people who have diseases or know someone who has a disease.” Conner’s second goal for the program is more expansive. “We want to increase public awareness of clinical trials.”
The free application is available through www.clickitforward.org. Users register and install the application on their Facebook or MySpace account. They then invite their friends and contacts to add the application as well. The application also integrates Google Earth so that users can see a dynamic, visual map of their own Click it Forward network. Users gain points based on how many friends subsequently install Click it Forward. The money that Acurian donates to the user’s chosen cause is based on ten tiers of accumulated points.
The contribution angle is meant to, “encourage people to make it viral,” Conner explains. Acurian has committed to giving up to $50,000 per year to causes chosen by Click It Forward members. Members choose from over 20 common diseases or indications including breast cancer, fibromyalgia, migraines, pain, depression, and diabetes. Acurian will identify “appropriate, nationally recognized non-profits” at the end of the year to receive the money allocated to each cause. Members also have the option to choose secondary causes about which they are interested in receiving more information.
Conner says he doesn’t have specific metrics for the success of Click It Forward, but, “I do hope to write that $50,000 check this year,” he said. The program is already “getting good value for the effort from sponsors and the media,” he said. “From an awareness standpoint, it’s worth it.”
Acurian hopes to target two different demographics with Facebook and MySpace. “Facebook is an older audience,” Conner says, usually presenting with more chronic indications. MySpace, on the other hand, caters to much younger users. “They are the future of clinical trials,” Conner says, and he hopes that Click It Forward will work to, “condition them to the importance of clinical trials.”
Acurian manages their database of 50 million individuals who have expressed interest in clinical trials, listed their health problems, and given detailed contact information. The company works with trial sponsors in a “soup to nuts” fashion to run recruitment campaigns, screen patients, and track the back end of the process.