Today we're launching a new service page: Salesforce for Clinical Trials. It isn't a new direction for us. We've been building Salesforce for clinical research sites since 2017. What's new is that we're finally putting that work in one place, so site leaders can see what's possible and decide whether it fits them.
Here's what we've learned, and what we build.
Enrollment depends on speed, and speed depends on your tools
If you run a research site, or a network of them, you already know this. A lead comes in from a Meta ad, a call center or a recontact list. Someone has to reach that person quickly, run the right phone screen for the right study, and book a visit at the right site. Then they have to keep track of every text, call and visit along the way.
The trouble is that most sites run all of this across disconnected tools. Leads sit in one place, texting lives in another, the CTMS is a third, and scheduling might be a shared calendar. The gaps get filled with spreadsheets. Coordinators re-key data. Leaders can't see the enrollment pipeline by study or by site without someone building a report by hand.
Generic CRM setups don't fix this, because they don't understand trials, eligibility or visits. You end up bending a sales pipeline into something it was never meant to be.
What we build
Our approach is to model the way a research site actually works, inside one Salesforce org.
Recruitment and lead management. Campaign and ad lead intake (including Meta lead ads), UTM capture, duplicate detection and merging, daily recontact imports and call-center lead routing. Every lead lands in one place, tagged with where it came from.
Study-specific phone screens. Guided screen flows by indication, such as depression, anxiety, memory, pain and obesity, with eligibility logic and ineligible-reason tracking. When a new study starts, you add a screen. You don't rebuild the system.
Trials, visits and scheduling. Custom objects for trials, eligibility, screening visits and office visits. Slot-based scheduling, visit procedures set up in configuration rather than code, and multi-site support. We've also connected scheduling to tools like the DayBack calendar.
Outreach automation. Automated text and task sequences, queue-based task checkout split by site, overdue-call tracking and front-office queues. Coordinators open Salesforce and see what to do next.
Texting, calling and CTMS integrations. Texting and calling inside Salesforce with Zipwhip, Plivo and RingCentral, so participant conversations sit on the participant's record. We've also built an API integration with CRIO, the clinical trial management system, plus Slack notifications for visits.
Reporting and dashboards. Recruiter, sponsor and payment dashboards, so leaders can see the enrollment pipeline by study and site without waiting on a spreadsheet.
Two long-running examples
Adams Clinical is an independent network of clinical research sites focused on psychiatric, neurological and ophthalmological disorders. We worked with Adams from 2017 to 2023. We started with the original data model for trials, eligibility and visits. Over time we added automated recruitment sequences, phone screens, a texting platform built first on Zipwhip and then on Plivo, a RingCentral integration, and the buildout to support multiple sites.
Irvine Clinical Research runs memory-focused research in Southern California. We started with a blueprint in 2021, and that work is still going today. We built Irvine's recruitment and screening engine: indication-specific phone screens, site-based task checkout, slot-based scheduling, Meta lead intake, Slack visit notifications, DayBack calendar scheduling and a live integration with CRIO.
Neither project was a one-time install. Both grew study by study and site by site, and that's how we think this kind of system should work.
How we work
- Blueprint. We map your studies, sites, recruitment sources and screening workflow before we build anything.
- Build. We develop the data model, flows and integrations in a sandbox and demo them as we go.
- Launch. We handle deployment, data backfill and team walkthroughs.
- Grow. We provide ongoing support as you add studies, phone screens and sites.
A note on compliance
Salesforce offers configurations that may support HIPAA requirements, including a BAA for eligible services. Your compliance depends on your own contracts and configuration, so confirm it with Salesforce and your compliance team.
Who we are
Eustace Consulting has worked with more than 700 clients. We're a Salesforce consultancy and also a HubSpot Platinum Solutions Partner. Our clinical research work is some of the most detailed we do, because the workflows are detailed: every study is different, and every hour a lead waits matters.
See if it fits your site
If your team is juggling leads, screens, texts and visits across too many tools, take a look at the new page. It covers what we build, how we work and the questions sites usually ask.
See Salesforce for Clinical Trials →
Or tell us how your site recruits and screens today, and we'll show you what that could look like in Salesforce: Book a free consultation.
— Chris Eustace, Founder, Eustace Consulting