CliniSpan Health

CliniSpan Health is a Research Triangle-based clinical trial recruitment company focused on increasing participation by people of color, women, rural residents and other underrepresented groups in medical research. Its original product was a clinical study marketplace: partner research organizations listed studies, while prospective participants registered with their clinical interests, medications and ZIP code and received tailored study opportunities.

The company subsequently developed an influencer relationship management platform powered by artificial intelligence, aimed at cultural education and engagement in underserved communities. An influencer-matching algorithm is applied to a trial's patient recruitment campaign to identify the social media influencers who most closely resemble the desired participant profile by gender, age range and racial/ethnic background. The company trains influencers on HIPAA and the history of clinical research, addressing distrust rooted in episodes such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

As of February 2024, CliniSpan reported working with more than 7,400 influencers across the United States and Canada on over 20 trials, with particular performance in COVID, asthma and eczema therapeutic areas and a customer base that included top-20 pharmaceutical companies.

Founding story

The idea originated with co-founder Dr. David Lipsitz, a physician who wanted to diversify clinical trials and had built an initial MVP. He was introduced to Dezbee McDaniel, a UNC graduate with an entrepreneurship minor and a Venture for America alumnus, through Lipsitz's son, who was McDaniel's UNC classmate. McDaniel has also described personal motivation from his aunt, who experienced rare side effects during breast cancer chemotherapy, and from learning about the underrepresentation of Black women in trials for those drugs. Co-founder VeQuain Joyner has similarly cited observing adverse medication effects among older family members.

Business model

CliniSpan Health charges clinical research clients for access to its platform and recruitment services. In its earlier marketplace form, studies paid to be listed and paid per referral and per enrollment. By 2024 sponsors and CROs paid a monthly subscription fee for the influencer-matching service, priced according to the number of submitted studies and view count. Sponsors had used the technology on a study-by-study basis, and the company was developing a licensing structure intended to support greater scaling.

Revenue comes from research sponsors and CROs via listing fees, per-referral and per-enrollment payments, and monthly subscriptions for the influencer-matching service scaled to the number of submitted studies and view count, with a licensing structure under development.

Traction

By March 2022 the company had eight research clients, a couple thousand registered users and more than 15 digital health influencers with a waitlist of additional applicants; it reported tripling the African American inclusion rate versus industry standard in Novavax COVID-19 vaccine trial recruiting, supplying 16-20% of total referrals to sites for a 10% African American inclusion rate. By February 2024 it reported more than 7,400 influencers across the U.S. and Canada, more than 20 trials supported, over $1 million in cumulative revenue with more than 200% revenue growth over three years, and average diversity and inclusion improvements of more than seven-fold.

Latest developments

At the February 2024 SCOPE pitch contest, the company said it planned a next investment round intended to reach break-even within 18 months, with revenues expected to double while costs grow by roughly 30%. Other stated plans included building out the AI infrastructure for the next iteration of the technology, doubling the influencer network to 15,000, creating a licensing structure for sponsors, and publishing a paper on results. Management cited maintaining the accuracy of predictive analytics as more influencers join as its main technical challenge, and expected a company spin-out in three to five years in light of FDA diversity mandates.