Voice and SMS agents that pre-screen and schedule matched patients

What does Engage do?

Engage starts from a list of patients who look eligible. With full EHR integration, that list comes from Identify, ranked and shown with the chart evidence behind each match. For a pilot without EHR integration, the site can supply the list itself, for example in a Google Sheet. Bond's agents then work through the list by phone and text.^⁠[1]

1. 1

   Disclose

   The patient is told that AI assistance is being used and can reach a person at any point: the agent transfers the call live to a coordinator or books a human callback, whichever the site prefers.^⁠[1],[2]

2. 2

   Pre-screen

   The agent asks the questions in the site's approved script and records each answer. These are usually the criteria a chart cannot settle, such as current symptoms or whether the patient can make the visit schedule. Conversations run in the patient's preferred language, including English, Spanish, Mandarin and many others, and can switch languages mid-call.^⁠[2]

3. 3

   Book the visit

   If the patient passes pre-screening and wants to go ahead, the agent books the screening visit into the site's calendar through a direct integration.^⁠[1]

4. 4

   Escalate and hand off

   A request for a person, or any question the script does not cover, including questions about care, risks or whether to join, goes to a coordinator.^⁠[1]

Voice and SMS outreach and scheduling are included in every engagement. Implementation covers setup and pricing covers fees.^⁠[1]

Can Bond bring in new patients with Meta and Google ads?

Yes. Bond sets up Meta and Google ad campaigns for your studies. Leads from those ads flow straight into Bond's voice and SMS/text agents for pre-screening and scheduling, alongside the patients Bond finds in your EHR, so every lead gets the same script, the same AI disclosure and the same handoff to your coordinators.^⁠[2]

• One workflow for every source. EHR matches, ad leads and lists the site already has go through the same pre-screening and scheduling, then on to Consent support.^⁠[1],[2]
• Chart first, ads to fill the gap. Patients the site already treats come with a chart that Identify checks against the protocol before anyone is contacted. Ads reach people the site has not seen, and the agents pre-screen them before a visit is booked.^⁠[2]
• IRB review first. Like any recruitment material, ad copy and landing pages need IRB review before they run. FDA's guidance on recruiting study subjects treats advertising as the start of informed consent.^⁠[17]

Why does manual phone outreach stall?

Calling patients competes with every other coordinator task. Published studies show where it breaks down: patients do not pick up, first visits do not happen, and staff hours pile up before anyone enrolls.

How is a script configured, approved and tested?

Site scripts and scheduling rules are configured per site and per study.^⁠[1] The site starts from language its IRB has already approved, or from Bond's pre-screening call script and SMS templates. Bond configures the agent to that text and to escalate anything the text does not cover.

FDA's guidance on recruiting study subjects treats recruitment advertising as the start of informed consent and asks the IRB to review both what it says and how it is delivered. For screening scripts, it asks the IRB to make sure sensitive answers are handled appropriately.^⁠[17] ICH E6(R3) asks for documented IRB approval of recruitment procedures before a trial starts.^⁠[18] Bond's IRB submission language for AI outreach is a starting point for the submission, which should cover:

• The voice script and every SMS message, word for word
• The AI disclosure line and how a patient reaches a person
• Which pre-screening answers are recorded, where they are stored and who can see them
• The contact window, the number of attempts and how opt-outs are handled
• Any translated version of the script, reviewed like the English one

ICH E6(R3) also expects computerized systems used in a trial to be fit for purpose, and the investigator stays responsible for work delegated to a service provider.^⁠[18] Before the first live call, have the study team compare the configured script with the approved version, place test calls and texts, and confirm that escalations and opt-outs reach the right person.

After launch, Bond keeps improving outreach messaging until study close-out.^⁠[2] Wording changes to an approved script go back to the IRB before they run.

How do AI disclosure, TCPA and HIPAA apply?

Disclosure

As of September 2026, no federal rule specifically requires AI disclosure on calls: the FCC proposed an AI-call disclosure rule in August 2024 but had not finalized it.^⁠[12] Some states do require it. Since January 1, 2026, Texas has required a provider that uses AI in relation to health care services to disclose that use to the patient in plain language.^⁠[19] California requires a disclaimer and a way to reach a human when generative AI writes patient messages about clinical information, unless a licensed provider reviews them; administrative matters such as appointment scheduling are excluded.^⁠[20]

TCPA

In February 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices are "artificial" voices under the TCPA, so these calls need the called party's prior express consent unless an emergency purpose or an exemption applies.^⁠[11]

The healthcare exemption for calls and texts to cell phones is narrow: one message per day, no more than three per week, voice calls of one minute or less, texts of 160 characters or less, and an opt-out in every message.^⁠[15] A pre-screening conversation rarely fits those limits, so the consent basis is a decision for the site and its counsel before outreach starts.

Since April 2025, patients can revoke consent by any reasonable means, and callers must honor it within 10 business days.^⁠[13] CTIA's messaging principles, which carriers apply to business texting, call for honoring STOP and plain-language opt-outs with one final confirmation text.^⁠[14] Texts from a standard 10-digit number also need brand and campaign registration before carriers will deliver them, so plan for it in the timeline.^⁠[16]

HIPAA

Bond is HIPAA compliant and SOC 2 Type I compliant, and its SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 audits are underway.^⁠[2] Bond signs a business associate agreement with the site, encrypts data in transit and at rest, limits access by role and keeps an audit trail.^⁠[1] HIPAA's minimum necessary standard applies to business associates as well as covered entities.^⁠[21] In practice, a script should ask only what pre-screening needs, and a first text should not name a diagnosis, since anyone holding the phone can read it. The IRB and HIPAA guide for patient outreach covers authorizations and waivers, and the security page lists Bond's controls.

When does the agent call, and how many times?

The site decides the contact window, the number of attempts and the spacing between them, and they go into the IRB submission. Federal rules bar telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the patient's local time. Informational research calls are generally not solicitations, but the same window is a sensible default.^⁠[15]

Timing changes who picks up. In a pragmatic trial at three California health systems, calls placed between 8 and 10 a.m. and between 1 and 4 p.m. reached more patients, while opt-outs appeared higher for calls placed between 7 and 9 p.m.^⁠[8]

On retries, the authors of the hospice studies above recommend calling at least twice and at different times of day. Their samples were small, so treat this as a direction, not a rule.^⁠[7]

What does the coordinator see?

Coordinators work from Bond's real-time dashboard, which tracks patients through the funnel: matched, contacted, pre-screened, consented and randomized. Status syncs to the site's CTMS or Google Sheet, and an audit trail supports compliance reporting.^⁠[1]

• Escalations. Patients who asked for a person or asked something the script does not cover, routed to a coordinator.^⁠[1]
• Booked visits. Already in the site's calendar.

Bond's reports add time to enrollment and coordinator hours saved, and Bond's site cites a 3x contact rate for its outreach.^⁠[1] Contact rate and show rate come from the funnel counts, so each study can be measured against your site's own baseline.

Reminders before the screening visit also affect show rate. In a meta-analysis of routine clinic appointments, not research visits, patients who got text reminders attended 67% of the time against 54% without.^⁠[9] Any reminder texts need the same IRB and TCPA review as the first outreach.

What do the agents do after a patient enrolls?

After enrollment, the same voice and SMS agents send visit reminders, book transportation, collect symptoms and diaries, run side-effect check-ins and flag participants at risk of dropping out.^⁠[2] Like the reminders above, these messages need the same IRB and TCPA review as the first outreach.

How does coordinator phone outreach compare with Bond's agents?

What does Bond not do?

• It does not obtain consent. Consent support helps patients understand the study. The site and PI still obtain consent.^⁠[1]
• It does not decide eligibility. Pre-screening answers narrow the list. The study team decides who screens and who enrolls.
• It does not give medical advice. Questions about care, risks or whether to join go to the study team.
• It does not choose the TCPA consent basis or approve its own scripts. The site's counsel and IRB do.
• It does not guarantee that patients answer. Contact rates still depend on the list, the population and the timing.
• It does not replace coordinators. Escalations, consent visits and the relationship with each patient stay with the site team.