Trial access for the patients community health centers serve

Why do community health centers matter for trial diversity?

Trial participants and health center patients look different. In the trials behind FDA's 53 novel drug approvals in 2020 (about 32,000 participants worldwide), participation averaged 75% White, 8% Black or African American and 11% Hispanic, with 54% at US sites.^⁠[5] Among 2025 health center patients with known race or ethnicity, HRSA reports 20.6% were Black or African American and 39.3% Hispanic or Latino.^⁠[3]

Few patients are ever asked. In a 2020 national survey, only 9% of US adults had ever been invited to join a clinical trial, but 47% of those invited took part.^⁠[6] In a 2024 poll for the PAN Foundation, only 22% of people of color said they had talked with their healthcare provider about taking part in a trial.^⁠[7]

The Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022 (FDORA) requires sponsors to submit a Diversity Action Plan for Phase 3 and other pivotal studies of drugs and certain devices that start enrolling more than 180 days after FDA publishes final guidance.^⁠[8] As of September 2026 that guidance is still a June 2024 draft, restored to FDA's website under a court order.^⁠[9] Sponsors have filed plans voluntarily: FDA's drug center received 124 in fiscal 2023 and 161 in fiscal 2024.^⁠[8]

What makes research at a health center different?

The patients are there. The research capacity often is not:

• EHR data. In 2025, 1,340 of 1,356 health centers used EHR data for quality improvement such as outreach, but only 364 used it for research.^⁠[4]
• Staff time. In a 2022 survey of all US physicians, not only health center staff, 14% reported doing research, and 83.6% of those spent 10% or less of their weekly hours on it.^⁠[10]
• Referrals. In a March 2026 poll of 503 US primary care physicians, 86% said they were likely to refer patients to trials, but only 37% ever had.^⁠[11]
• Language. Of 14,367 trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov in 2019 and 2020, 18.98% required the ability to read, speak or understand English, and 2.71% mentioned translation into another language.^⁠[12]
• Reading level. Consent forms from 798 federally funded US trials averaged a 12th-grade reading level, against an 8th-grade average for US adults.^⁠[13]

Which EHRs do health centers run, and how does Bond connect?

eClinicalWorks said in March 2024 that it was the EHR vendor for more than 800 health centers, roughly 60% of the national total.^⁠[14] As of September 2026, NextGen Healthcare says on its FQHC software page that more than 300 community health centers choose it.^⁠[15] OCHIN offers OCHIN Epic to community health organizations; in January 2026 it reported a network of more than 43,000 providers caring for nearly 8 million people.^⁠[16] athenahealth launched athenaOne for Community Health Centers in May 2025.^⁠[17] A center affiliated with a health system may instead use that system's Epic through Epic's Community Connect model.^⁠[18] Bond connects to all the major EHRs, including Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), MEDITECH, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, Veradigm and OncoEMR.^⁠[2]

What changes day to day with Bond?

Each of Bond's three stages takes one task off a small team.^⁠[1]

1. 1

   Identify: the chart review

   Identify reads structured fields and notes against the study's criteria, ranks candidates, and shows the chart evidence behind each decision. A coordinator reviews a ranked list instead of opening charts one by one.^⁠[1]

2. 2

   Engage: the first contact

   Engage calls or texts each candidate, runs the pre-screening script your IRB approved and books the visit. Patients are told AI is used and can reach a person at any time: the agent transfers the call live to a coordinator or books a human callback, whichever the site prefers. Scripts are configured per study.^⁠[1],[2]

3. 3

   Consent: the conversation before the signature

   Consent explains the approved form in plain language, answers questions, helps the patient understand points such as randomization, and hands anything else to staff. The investigator or delegated staff still obtain consent.^⁠[1]

4. 4

   Coordinator: the exceptions

   Escalations, booked visits and status changes appear in one dashboard with an audit trail.^⁠[1]

To reach community members who are not yet your patients, Bond sets up Meta and Google ad campaigns for a study.^⁠[2] Leads from those ads flow straight into Bond's voice and text agents for pre-screening and scheduling, alongside patients found in your EHR.^⁠[2]

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]

Which problems does Bond address, and what should you measure?

Bond publishes up to 3x faster enrollment than manual recruitment, over 90% matching accuracy and 50%+ less chart review.^⁠[1] None of these come from a health center, so test them in your own pilot rather than treat them as a forecast.

What does implementation ask of your team?

Full EHR integration takes 48 hours, depending on the EHR, your IT review and the interface method.^⁠[1] See the implementation plan.

• A signed business associate agreement before any PHI moves.
• An EHR administrator to enable access, plus sign-off from OCHIN or your Community Connect host if either runs your Epic.
• IRB approval of scripts, texts and translations. Start from the IRB submission language for AI outreach and the SMS templates with Spanish versions.
• A research lead to review matches and take escalations.
• A PI or delegated staff member available for consent visits.
• Contact windows, opt-outs and the consent basis for calls and texts, decided with counsel. See the IRB and HIPAA outreach guide.

Bond is HIPAA compliant and SOC 2 Type I compliant, and its SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 audits are underway.^⁠[2] On Bond's side, data is protected with encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access and an audit log.^⁠[1] See security.

How does pricing work for a health center?

Pricing has two parts. A volume-based platform fee covers EHR integration, implementation and ongoing operation, including the EHR connection, security review, workflow setup and ongoing support; there is no separate integration fee. A success fee is charged per enrolled, meaning randomized, patient; per-visit milestones can be added.^⁠[1] Amounts are custom; see pricing.

For a center new to research, the platform fee is the commitment to weigh. The success fee, and any visit milestones you agree to, follows enrollment.