Case study
HealthMatch
A systems-led approach to create the future of medicine with 20,946 patients
Overview
‘Quantifying Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Clinical Trials’ is a report series aimed at improving engagement and retention in clinical trials, leading to better and safer treatments by engaging the most diverse audience possible.
The series started in 2023 - engaging with HealthMatch’s patient community in real-time to understand and develop insights about the discovery of & participation in clinical trials.
In 2025, the work expanded, with leading pharmaceutical organisations (AbbVie, GSK) collaborating and guiding the research objectives. For the first time in this series, we considered, sex & gender, disability, caregiving, and a range of socio-economic dimensions.
Awards
The challenge
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a deeply systemic challenge and its significance in clinical trials cannot be overstated. Without proper participation and representation of patients, research cannot truly indicate how treatments will ultimately work for everyone and anyone who needs it.
Despite the (at times) divisive topic of DEI, HealthMatch continues to drive for better outcomes to bring safer treatments to market and improve the lives of patients: good science always matters. They believe that amplifying the voices of underrepresented patients is changing the landscape of clinical trial participation, and is not only good practice, but good science.
"Continuing this work highlights the value and importance of engaging with patient communities - real-time insights mean we can help sponsors make changes to improve engagement and retention, now."
What we did
Snowmelt used a collaborative & inclusive design process to engage with patient and industry perspective: shaping areas of exploration, gathering data & responses from real patients, analysing & presenting the findings for industry.
Accessibility was more than the subject matter: research was undertaken in multiple languages with customised collection based on personal circumstances and responses.
Key activities
- Engagement across industry partners.
- Mapping of patient engagement process (including pre- & post) in discussion with real patients.
- Multi-dimensional analysis of myriad diversity factors
- Analysis of responses to identify a series of insights for entire population groups and key subsets.
- Developed a 120+ page report for industry.
Outcomes
Development of Real-Time Patient Insights product
The largest survey of its kind
"This is an exemplar of Social Impact Design - smart, innovative, and impactful design at its best, co-designed with industry partners for better and safer treatments."
Project Insights
- Systemic perspectives matter. Understanding the context for a real-world patient experience is critical for real insights that drive change.
- Co-design builds both trust and data quality. Connecting patient and industry perspectives at all levels and opportunities ensures incentives and activities are aligned: broader participation and greater confidence in findings.
- Shared insight accelerates system learning. A shared frame of reference and knowledge baseline across organisations serves collective reflection and creates the conditions for shared investment and action.
