Top 5 Takeaways from our CRIO Partner Webinar
Patient recruitment is still one of the biggest challenges that clinical research sites face today. Manual chart reviews consume countless hours, while valuable patient data hides in unstructured EMR notes.
That’s why we teamed up with CRIO earlier this month for a live webinar to showcase how our collaboration is helping clinical research sites cut chart review time, lower screen failure rates, and speed up enrollment, all while working within the eClinical systems sites already in use. From live demos to thoughtful Q&A, this session sparked some incredible conversations—and even better, surfaced the real-world impact of embedding AI into everyday site workflows.
If you weren’t able to attend live, don’t worry! We’re recapping everything for you here, from the top five takeaways to the most frequently asked questions we heard from attendees. Whether you're already using CRIO or just exploring smarter recruitment solutions, this article provides insight into exactly how the Trially integration works, why it matters, and what kind of results sites are seeing.
Who’s behind Trially?
Meet the triple founding team members who are creating a “stupid simple” technology that is solving the biggest problem in clinical trial recruitment.
Kyle, Trially’s CEO and Co-founder, has literally sat in his customer’s shoes. As a former VP of Data previously at CCT Research, Epic and Cerner, he experienced the day-to-day frustrations duct-taping his EMR systems together while working with competitor technologies. He’s also a seasoned entrepreneur with a successful exit under his belt.
Ramon, our CTO and Co-founder, is the architect behind Trially’s powerful AI engine. Before launching Trially, he was a Senior AI/ML Engineer at Zapier, where he re-architected the data infrastructure to grow the company to a $8B valuation. Ramon ensures our AI model is powerful, precise and adherent to the highest standards of compliance, safety and security.
Trevor, our CPO and Co-founder, brings deep expertise in AI, NLP, and product development. As the former Head of Data Products at Zapier and a founder with another successful exit history, he has a passion for making “stupid simple” a reality.
Together, this team of technologists blends clinical, technical and native AI and API expertise with one shared goal: get life-saving therapies to patients faster.
About Trially
Trially is a HIPAA-compliant AI matching technology that is shaping the future of clinical trial recruitment. Founded by industry veterans from Epic, Cerner, and AI / API wizards from Zapier, Trially AI matches patients to trials and trials to patients through the rapid interpretation of untapped clinical data (think physician notes, PDFs, and even scanned documents).
During the webinar’s live demo, Trially CEO and Co-founder Kyle McAllister showed how sites can upload a trial protocol and instantly generate a ranked list of eligible patients, matched precisely to inclusion and exclusion criteria and send them directly to CRIO.
About CRIO
Founded in 2015 by Raymond Nomizu and Phuc Truong, CRIO has quickly become the #1 site-powered eSource solution, transforming clinical trial workflows from a site-centric perspective. CRIO's intuitive and integrated software platform streamlines protocol compliance, eliminates manual transcription, and saves significant time and costs for both sites and sponsors. By automating data capture at the site level, CRIO ensures higher data quality right from the start, enhancing efficiency and patient-centricity throughout the entire clinical trial process.
Why did we build this integration?
For years, clinical trial sites have had to rely on manual chart reviews and limited EMR reporting tools to identify potential participants. These traditional methods aren’t just time-consuming, but they’re often inaccurate and burdensome, pulling staff away from spending time with patients.
That’s why Trially was built: to make it easier to match patients with studies using the medical data you already have. And by embedding our patient-matching technology directly into CRIO, one unified experience empowers staff to:
Upload a trial protocol
Instantly identify eligible patients based on EMR data
Push those leads directly into CRIO
No toggling between platforms. No reinventing the wheel. Just a faster, more accurate and cost-effective way to find patients.
The Top 5 Takeaways from our CRIO Integration Webinar
We heard tons of great feedback from sites during the session, but there were five major takeaways that stood out to us the most. Here’s what you need to know…
1. You can find eligible patients the day a protocol arrives
Forget waiting for ad campaigns or physician referrals. With Trially’s AI capabilities, sites can generate hundreds or even thousands of eligible patient leads as soon as they receive a new protocol. These patients are then matched against inclusion/exclusion criteria with precision, thanks to our AI's ability to read and interpret both structured and unstructured data.
2. It only takes one click to turn it on: “Enable API”
Nikki Gandhi, founder of the CRIO Partners Program, showed our viewers just how easy it is to get started. Sites can enable the Trially integration directly from the CRIO Partner Directory with no heavy lifting or IT bottlenecks along the way.
Once you click “Enable API,” the system kicks off the integration process. Within 24 hours, Trially can be live and running on your site’s patient data. It’s an out-of-the-box setup that fits into existing site workflows without the need for unnecessary tools or dashboards to learn.
3. Chart review time and screen failures plummet
NextStage Clinical Research put our integration to the test in a real-world obesity trial, and the results were impressive. Overall, their team saw a 90% reduction in time spent on manual chart reviews and a 73% reduction in screen failures.
By automating patient matching, Trially frees up Clinical Research Coordinators (CRCs) and recruiters to focus on higher-impact work like patient outreach, retention strategies, and site operations. The system narrows down lists to the most likely matches, complete with the rationale behind each match so staff can screen with confidence.
4. Enrollment rates will jump
Imagine accelerating your enrollment rates and getting patients the treatments they need faster. In the same obesity trial with NextStage, the site saw its monthly enrollment rate increase by 200%. This rapid enrollment isn't just about efficiency but shows a significant step forward for patient care, providing quicker access to vital treatment opportunities.
And this isn’t just a one-off success. As more sites adopt the integration, Trially consistently emerges as the top source for enrolled patients, outperforming traditional recruitment methods and becoming the #1 recruitment source at the site.
Even for those who are extremely hard to recruit for studies. One of our CRIO sites recently told us, “It’s the white whale of a study. With Trially AI, we found 8 prospects in 2 days—compared to 4 in the last YEAR! That kind of speaks for itself.”
5. Our integration works with any EMR, even antiquated ones
One of the most common questions we got during the webinar was: “What if our EMR is… well… ancient?”
The good news is that we’ve designed Trially to be flexible. Whether your site uses Epic, Cerner, a custom-built system, or a lesser-known EMR, we can still connect. Even in situations where the EMR lacks strong API capabilities, we’ve worked around it using alternate formats like PDFs and CTMS exports.
What attendees asked us (and how we answered)
The Q&A session gave us a deeper look into the real concerns and curiosities sites have when exploring a tool like Trially. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and what we shared in response.
Q: Do we need to use our own EMR database to use Trially?
Great question! The answer: Not necessarily.
While Trially is built to extract insights from EMR data, we also work with sites that use CTMS data, scanned documents, and even large PDF medical histories. Our system is flexible enough to find matches wherever your data lives.
That said, sites with EMR access will be able to unlock the full benefits of Trially’s AI matching capabilities.
Q: Can I use Trially across multiple sites or physician networks?
To put it simply, yes.
If you operate across a network or partner with referring physicians in the community, we can connect to those sources, too. You also get to choose which datasets are analyzed for each protocol, giving you control over your outreach strategy.
Q: What if a physician doesn’t want to give us direct data access?
This is a common concern, and it’s why we offer hands-on support during onboarding. Our team partners directly with sites and physicians to explain how data is kept secure and HIPAA-compliant.
With our founders coming from Epic, Cerner, and CCT Research, we know the language and concerns of each stakeholder, and we’re here to help lead those conversations.
Q: What does it cost?
Trially operates on a monthly subscription model, which varies depending on your site’s size and integration needs. If you’re interested, we’re happy to talk one-on-one about what that might look like for your team. You can also schedule a live demo for more insight into how the platform can work for you.
Q: What’s the EMR consent process like?
We only work with data from sites or physicians who have a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) in place. We sign our own BAAs with every site we support, and all third-party technologies connected to Trially are HIPAA-certified. Your patients’ privacy and data security are never compromised.
Q: What if my EMR doesn’t have an API?
This is no problem! We’ve integrated with a variety of systems that don’t offer standard APIs. Whether it’s through secure file transfers, PDF ingestion, or alternative export formats, we’ll find a path that works for your setup.
A quick recap of the live demo
If you missed it, the live demo was one of the highlights of the session. Here’s how the Trially integration before and after sites could use AI technology:
CRIO-Trially Integration - Less Systems, More Enrollment
Site Staff Actions | Patient ID Pre-Encounter | During Patient Encounter | Post Patient Encounter |
|---|---|---|---|
BEFORE | Manual chart reviews in | Accessing patient history | Documentation and |
AFTER | None! Trially does the work | Site Staff accesses and | Site Staff makes patient |
Systems Used | Patient ID Pre-Encounter | During Patient Encounter | Post Patient Encounter |
|---|---|---|---|
BEFORE | Sponsor Protocol | EMR/Vendor CRM | EMR |
AFTER | CRIO | CRIO | CRIO |
Site Impact | Patient ID Pre-Encounter | During Patient Encounter | Post Patient Encounter |
|---|---|---|---|
AFTER | 90% less chart review hours | 60% less screen failures | 2x more patients enrolled |
Want to see this integration in action? You can go back and watch the full webinar recording anytime here.
Final thoughts: Why it matters
Clinical research is moving fast, and sites need tools that can keep up. The Trially + CRIO integration isn’t about flashy AI buzzwords or overwhelming dashboards. It’s about saving time, reducing screen failures, and giving your staff the power to focus on what they do best: serve patients.
The data speaks for itself:
2x increase in enrollment
73% reduction in screen fails
90% reduction in chart review time
500+ leads generated for complex study
By tapping into the data you already have and making it actionable, Trially AI helps you move from reactive recruitment to proactive enrollment.
Ready to see it in action for yourself?
If you're curious about how the Trially integration can support your site, we’d love to show you more.
Schedule a demo today with one of our team members and see how Trially + CRIO can help you enroll patients faster and smarter.
Or explore the integration for yourself directly inside CRIO’s Partner Directory. Just search “Trially,” click “Enable API,” and we’ll take it from there.
