Science 37 Accelerates Clinical Trial Enrollment

The Challenge: Scaling Under Operational Strain

By late 2022, Science 37’s in-house medical records team was growing quickly. At its peak, the team included 13 staff managing manual record requests, provider follow-ups, and intake review processes. But the volume and complexity of studies made scaling this model unsustainable.

“We were doing all of the work that Predoc would do with a 13-person in-house team. We just couldn’t keep up.” — Joanna Freitag, Director, Medical Records

Compounding the issue, delays in retrieving patient records slowed enrollment cycles and sometimes led to missed trial opportunities. Record retrieval turnaround times averaged 1–2 weeks, with some extreme cases stretching to 60+ days.

The Solution: Outsourcing Records Retrieval to Predoc

In 2023, Science 37 piloted Predoc to offload chart chase and streamline data acquisition. The results were immediate:

• Redeployed staff to higher-value work: the in-house team was reduced by 70%, from 13 to 4 FTEs, with the remaining team refocused on patient follow-ups.
• Complete data, returned faster: record turnaround was cut in half, with many records returned same-day or within 4 days.
• Scalable support: Predoc provides ongoing capacity for complex studies requiring high volumes of records.

“Using Predoc gave us the scalability we needed and freed up our team to focus on patient follow-ups, getting more records back overall.”
Joanna Freitag

The Impact: Faster Enrollment, Better Throughput

While study timelines vary, Science 37 reported that time to consent decreased by 50%, significantly improving trial throughput.

“Whether the patient is a yes or a no, we’re getting to that answer faster. We can screen more people and reach those yeses quicker.”
Jeff Richardson, SVP Operations

Faster throughput had real downstream effects: by 2025, Science 37 became the number one recruiting site in the country for at least one study, and rare disease studies that previously struggled to hit recruitment goals were no longer a challenge.

Replacing most of an in-house records function with a managed service turns a growing fixed headcount cost into scalable capacity, while the staff who remain are redeployed to follow-ups that get even more records back. Because complete data returns faster, time-to-consent drops and otherwise-qualified patients reach a yes or no sooner, which is what made top-ranked recruiting and rare-disease enrollment possible.

“Predoc lets us show sponsors that we can move quickly and scale. It’s not just a vendor, it’s part of the value proposition.”

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