By Clinical Research News Staff

December 11, 2026 | Finalists have been announced in the 10^th annual Participant Engagement Awards. Four projects from Biogen, Proximity Health Solutions, and BlackDoctor.org; Empath Labs; PACT; and Science 37 and RxE2 will be presented during a live judging session at SCOPE in Orlando, Florida, Feb 2-5, 2026.

The Participant Engagement Award (PEA) recognizes innovation and change in how the pharmaceutical industry communicates with participants in the fields of recruitment and retention in clinical trials. Submissions come from all facets of the industry, including sponsors, sites, CROs, patient groups, agencies, and start-ups. A panel of judges screens the submissions to find the best work in patient recruitment and retention communications.

Finalists for the 2026 award include:

• a bi-weekly webinar series—Better Together: Sharing Our Lupus Stories—designed to educate and empower female, African American, and other underrepresented lupus patients, as well as their caregivers and families created by Biogen, Proximity Health Solutions, and BlackDoctor.org;
• interactive toys from Empath Labs to prepare children enrolled in clinical trials;
• an AI connection to patient-authorized electronic health records that uses LLMs to check eligibility against trial criteria from PACT; and
• a vaccine trial delivered directly to agriculture-centered communities by Science 37 and RxE2.

Finalist projects have been created to engage potential, current, or alumni study participants or their influencers and show marked improvements in the status quo. Judges seek innovation, creativity and messaging while meeting industry standards and compliance rules.

Here are the finalists’ entries in their own words:

Better Together – Sharing Our Lupus Stories 
From Biogen, Proximity Health Solutions, and BlackDoctor.org

The “Better Together: Sharing Our Lupus Stories” webinar series is a bi-weekly, one-hour digital event designed to educate and empower female, African American, and other underrepresented lupus patients, as well as their caregivers and families. Each session features expert-led discussions hosted by both a female African American lupus patient and a rheumatologist, focusing on topics that matter most to the lupus community. The series aims to increase disease understanding, build trust in clinical trials, and position Biogen as a trusted resource for patient-centric information. By creating an interactive, open dialogue and sharing personal journeys, Better Together provides a supportive environment where patients can learn, connect, and consider clinical trial participation.

Better Together has significantly deepened participants’ understanding of lupus, disease management, clinical trials, and related life topics such as comorbidities, nutrition, and career management. The series serves as a vital meeting place, fostering a sense of togetherness and emotional support that is essential for lupus patients. By providing a safe space for sharing of experiences and learning from peers and experts, Better Together empowers patients to live fuller, healthier lives and make informed decisions about their care.                 

Clinical Companions: Reimagining Participant Engagement for Pediatric Trials
From Empath Labs

Clinical Companions are interactive, procedure-mirroring toys designed to prepare and support children enrolled in clinical trials. Children care for their companions using a mobile app that enables them to simulate the same procedures they will experience in a trial, driving children to emotionally engage in their trial participation. By creating a trusted relationship between child and companion, we aim to improve adherence and retention while fostering a more positive trial and site experience. Clinical Companions are designed in close collaboration with children and teens through a partnership with iCAN.

Clinical Companions directly reduce procedural anxiety, increase emotional readiness, and enhance the trial experience for pediatric participants. For sponsors and study teams, this translates into improved adherence, higher retention, and stronger data integrity. The impact is both human and operational—building trust with families while supporting the goals of clinical research.             

In our first clinical trial, we observed 100% retention of pediatric trial participants! PI’s have reported improved data quality, treatment adherence, and e-diary completion among children that adopt Clinical Companions. We expect continued positive outcomes in patient-reported experience, as well as measurable improvements in study completion and retention rates.

Empowering Oncology Patients, Accelerating Research—Universalizing Clinical Trial Access through Patient-First Distribution and Tech 
From PACT

PACT (pact-ai.com) was born from our founder Skye’s experience navigating her dad’s Glioblastoma diagnosis, where fast, precise trial navigation didn’t exist. Instead of error-prone questionnaires or call centers, PACT surfaces clear, accurate next steps in only 30 seconds by connecting to patient-authorized EHRs and using LLMs to check eligibility against criteria. Patients choose what to share and with whom; sites receive prescreen-ready packets that cut manual work. PACT expands the reachable, engaged patient pool, and accelerates high-quality recruitment for sites and sponsors because it meets patients where they already are (organic social, creator and advocacy partners) and is designed as a tool people actually want to use (plain-language UX, no long forms, privacy-forward).

Oncology patients take on life-altering risk when they join trials, yet providers spend little to no time explaining options and alternate avenues for patients to understand trial options are manual, time-consuming, and imprecise. PACT meets the gravity of a patient’s decision with technology they actually want and use, integrated into the way they get information now. PACT is a product patients choose to use with 30-second onboarding, zero long questionnaires, plain-language results, caregiver share-links, and patient-directed data sharing. Patients find PACT through always-on D2P reach via organic social, creator/advocacy partnerships, and patient communities—meeting patients in daily feeds, not only in the clinic.

Pharm-to-Trial: Expanding Trial Access into Agriculture-Centered U.S. Communities
From Science 37 and RxE2

Combining our shared vision of reimagining clinical trial accessibility, Science 37 and RxE2 have partnered to deliver a decentralized vaccine trial that is bringing the study directly to agriculture-centered communities. Encompassing an expansive hub-and-spoke model, pharmacies situated in major regions of American agriculture serve as channels to research participation for hundreds of study participants across a multiyear study. At the model’s core, a central pharmacy depot orchestrates the flow of IMP and other clinical supplies to distal hubs, ensuring every detail of storage, shipment, and accountability of the investigational product and supplies meets the highest compliance standard. RxE2 pharmacy hubs—centers of trusted health care provision in the community—act not only as IMP recipients, but are transformed into grassroots research clinics, empowering Science 37’s research-grade nursing corps and investigators to undertake key assessments and enable study conduct where people live and work. This partnership demonstrates not only operational excellence, but puts forth a visionary, patient-first blueprint for successful decentralized trials—one that pushes the boundaries of reach, education, and inclusivity, as well as scientific impact.