Each year, thousands of clinical trials open their doors. Yet regardless of the therapy area, they run into the same road-block: recruiting and retaining the right participants. The problem cuts both ways. Contract research organizations (CROs) and sponsors struggle to fill studies, and volunteers confront a process that was never designed for them.
Most public trial registries, ClinicalTrials.gov chief among them, are written for professionals rather than for people searching for studies to address their health concerns. Breaking it down, potential participants encounter three fundamental barriers:
- Finding a study that truly fits their diagnosis, location, and life situation
- Understanding the jargon and complex eligibility criteria
- Enduring poor user experiences on outdated websites
Majd Mirza, Viedoc’s Chief Innovation Officer, notes: “The information is not patient-friendly. While all the data is there, it isn’t organized in a way that helps people see themselves in the descriptions or understand what to expect.”
Technical Fellow Binish Peter agrees, adding, “Clinical terminology and complex condition descriptions are written from a CRO or sponsor mindset. The average person just doesn’t understand the language.” He adds that the websites promoting clinical trials often make it hard for non-professionals to locate appropriate studies or ask follow-up questions.
Viedoc sees this need as an opportunity to act. The result is TrialMe—a proof-of-concept app designed from the patient’s perspective. Here’s how this early-stage solution helps re-imagine trial accessibility.
Why we created TrialMe
Some participants turn to clinical trials because no other options remain, while others do so on their physician’s advice. A third contingent volunteers simply to help advance science. Yet, despite this strong interest, huge obstacles still stand in the way of participation.
A 2023 survey by the Pan Foundation revealed strong curiosity—75% of adults wanted to learn about clinical studies, yet 58% didn’t know how to locate a relevant trial. StuffThatWorks’ 2025 crowdsourced study told an even more challenging story: 93% of respondents were interested in joining a trial, but only 13% had a doctor explain why a study might be appropriate.
Viedoc originally developed TrialMe for a Society of Clinical Data Management (SCDM) hackathon, testing whether a truly patient-centered approach could drive more engagement. The project demanded a complete rethink of how people engage with trial information, requiring a willingness to tackle the challenge from a fresh angle.
As Majd explains: “We decided to create a solution completely from the patient’s point of view, understanding how they use apps for everything from ordering food to online dating.” The result is a web-based, AI-powered app built for laypeople, featuring an interface—surprisingly—inspired by Tinder.
A look inside the app
Trialme replaces clunky, outdated web interfaces with a patient-friendly, mobile-first design. Technical Fellow Binish Peter calls the experience quick and intuitive:
“Users can easily search for clinical trials by condition, geographical location, and other relevant factors. But the real benefit is that using the tool is almost fun. Instead of scrolling through long lists of trials, TrialMe serves up ‘cards’ that summarize each study. Users swipe through the cards and ‘like’ the ones they want to explore further.”
“Accessibility is the primary value of TrialMe,” Majd explains. “By relying solely on official data from ClinicalTrials.gov, the app guarantees accuracy, and our interface turns that data into information the average person can act on when searching for a study.”
TrialMe includes a built-in, AI-powered chatbot that lets users ask natural-language questions, such as “How many visits will I need to make?” or “Does the treatment hurt?”—and receive instant answers. AI keeps the automation quick and invisible, returning information that might otherwise hold patients back from enrolling. In turn, users regain control and can make a truly informed decision about joining a study.
Privacy is simple: TrialMe requires no account. There’s nothing to download, and the web-based app guides users through just a few basic questions. Viedoc stores no identifiable information—details such as age, gender, or condition stay on the user’s device.
How TrialMe helps patients and study teams
TrialMe delivers simpler, smarter trial access by helping participants and study teams find each other more easily. “With AI, we can tailor answers to the audience by translating medical and trial jargon into everyday language. That makes the information relevant and helps users locate trials they might otherwise miss,” Majd explains. He adds that TrialMe’s ease of use appeals to healthy volunteers as well as those seeking treatment, broadening the participant pool.
The app also provides contact details, so patients can take the next step toward enrolment. This is why TrialMe benefits study teams as well, making it faster and easier to enroll enough qualified participants to generate reliable results. Its simplicity can significantly accelerate recruitment so studies get underway sooner.
Looking ahead: possibilities worth exploring
- Anonymous Q&A: prospective participants could send questions to site or study staff without revealing personal details, lowering the first-contact barrier for privacy-conscious candidates.
- Sponsor-supplied enrichments: study owners might embed plain-language videos, visit-schedule graphics, or travel-stipend details directly on each trial card, giving volunteers clearer expectations upfront.
- One-tap hand-off to recruitment portals: a seamless jump from TrialMe to a sponsor’s preferred sign-up page or recruitment hub could give users a faster, more convenient way to enroll and move forward.
- Opt-in profile matching: if a volunteer chooses to create a profile, TrialMe could automatically flag new studies that match their conditions, location, and the kinds of trials they have liked, while giving sites the ability to invite these pre-qualified candidates the moment a suitable study opens.
These ideas aren’t on the immediate roadmap, but they illustrate the headroom for TrialMe to create even more value for candidates, sites, and sponsors as the ecosystem matures.
Try it for yourself
TrialMe is now publicly available free of charge. Even in its proof-of-concept form, the web-based app streamlines the search process, helping participants find suitable studies and decide whether a trial is right for them.
The current version is free for anyone to use and explore, and Viedoc welcomes your feedback. For the best experience, open the app on a mobile device and visit https://trialme.app/.
