Ochsner Health, Paradigm Health Partnership Expands Clinical Trial Access Across the Gulf South

Across the South, many patients face barriers to cancer care. There are fewer oncologists,¹ many underinsured patients,² and, for some, extended travel for care or clinical trials.^3,4 Until about a decade ago, enrollment in a clinical trial would depend on a physician or nurse being willing to comb through records to match patients with studies.⁵ In a handful of places, that’s still how it works.

Which might make it seem unlikely that a patient diagnosed with colorectal cancer in rural Louisiana who sees the oncologist after his first pathology report could learn that day that he is eligible for a clinical trial. But today, that’s possible, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and a partnership involving Ochsner Health, the largest nonprofit academic health system in the Gulf South.⁶

Through a partnership with Paradigm Health, information on clinical trials feeds directly into Ochsner's electronic health records, as Paradigm’s platform continuously evaluates patients' medical records against trial criteria across Ochsner’s 47 hospitals and 370 clinics.⁶ The power of AI has replaced the thousands of staff hours that would have been needed to review each patient’s record for trial eligibility; instead, the technology flags patients automatically as they move through routine care.

“We can see the data across all of those clinics,” Kent Thoelke, founder and CEO of Paradigm Health, said in an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care®. If there is a colorectal cancer trial under way sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, “we would have already configured that into our software. And then any patient that's getting a biopsy, or will have a pathology report or a scan, if they met the criteria for that clinical trial the system would identify that patient and flag it for the physician, so the physician doesn't miss it,” he said.

Because Paradigm also links to patient scheduling data, Thoelke explained, it can deliver matched clinical trial information “just-in-time” for the patient. “So, if we see the patient's coming in in a week or 2 and has met all the criteria, then we flag that, and we engage with the health care team.”

Through a partnership with Paradigm Health, Ochsner has increased its clinical trial screening capacity by 41% and more than tripled the pool of patients it follows for future clinical trial eligibility. Most of all, it has shrunk the manual workload on clinical research coordinators by 75%, according to an August 12, 2026, statement from the 2 organizations.⁶

“This partnership has helped us implement a more comprehensive, integrated perspective of our patients' eligibility for trials that extends past individual clinics or specific healthcare encounters,” said Nneka Ifejika, MD, chief scientific officer at Ochsner Health, in the announcement.⁶ “By pinpointing eligible patients sooner in their treatment path and tracking changing eligibility status, we are making our clinical trial infrastructure more efficient and expanding the reach of Ochsner's research team to consider and enroll more patients in need of trials as a care option.”

Wendy Chriss, PhD, director of clinical research at Ochsner Health, described the shift as foundational to how the system now approaches research, in oncology and beyond.⁶ "By automating the incredibly complex, manual screening process, we are making clinical trials an inclusive, realistic care option for more patients across the Gulf South," Chriss said. "This isn't just an operational victory; it is a major step forward in our region."

Closing the Rural Access Gap

Thoelke said the company's mission centers on giving patients in community and rural settings the same access to trials that patients at academic medical centers have long enjoyed. “We fundamentally think if the data's already electronic, and we already have access to it, people shouldn't have to manually re-enter that data into another electronic system,” he said in the interview, describing the platform’s ability to bypass duplicative data entry in addition to matching patients.

Paradigm’s system reads both structured and unstructured data—physician notes, pathology reports, imaging, and next-generation sequencing results—to identify patients who meet trial criteria, including genetic or biomarker-based requirements. The platform can also flag patients who could meet trial eligibility but are lacking a certain test, or would be eligible for a trial in second-line therapy if they end up progressing on their first-line regimen. This does not dictate clinical decisions to physicians, but it gives them options. “We would let them know that this patient would be eligible if they had a test,” Thoelke said. “We leave the care decisions to the physician.”

Across Paradigm Health's broader network, he said, roughly 80% of partner sites are community or rural facilities, many serving underrepresented populations, which includes Black, Hispanic, and Native American patients, as well as patients of lower socioeconomic status. Sites using the platform recruit patients into trials at rates 20% to as much as 400% higher than sites without it. “We can double, triple the number of patients that are being recruited into trials using our software than sites that traditionally are not using our software,” Thoelke said, adding that faster enrollment also compresses trial timelines. “In theory, drugs that are beneficial and efficacious and safe get to market sooner.”

Looking Toward Real-Time FDA Review

Paradigm Health is also working with the FDA on a separate initiative announced in April 2026 to accelerate trial execution and regulatory review.⁷ Thoelke said the company has been running real-time trials with AstraZeneca and Amgen since December, using its Study Conduct platform to send eligibility and safety signals to regulators as endpoints are met, rather than transmitting full data sets after the fact. An FDA request for information issued in June signaled the agency's interest in expanding the pilot to additional studies, and Thoelke said Paradigm anticipates participating in future rounds. “We're already seeing other regulators around the world reach out to us to say, can this model be replicated,” he said.

Paradigm’s work to improve access comes as data show that the majority of non-metropolitan US counties lack a single active clinical trial. Thoelke believes this should not be the case. “Your access to life-saving medications should not depend on your zip code," he said.

References

1. Crowley RJ, Lally JS, Kline DM, Bunting AM. Geographic disparities in access to oncologists and association with cancer outcomes in the United States. J Cancer Pol. 2026;47:100704. doi:10.1016/j.jcpo.2026.100704
2. Osmani AR. Unequal gains? A literature review on the Affordable Care Act's effects on healthcare utilization across racial and ethnic groups. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2025;22(7):1059. doi:10.3390/ijerph22071059.
3. Shriver SP, Sahar L, Douangchai Wills VL, Adams DV, Fleury ME. Assessing populations with access to National Cancer Institute-funded sites using local distance-based service areas. J Clin Translat Sci 2025;9(1):e218. doi:10.1017/cts.2025.10148
4. Kirkwood MK, Schenkel C, Hinshaw DC, et al. State of geographic access to cancer treatment trials in the United States: Are studies located where patients live?JCO Oncol Pract. 2025;21(3): doi: 10.1200/OP.24.00261.
5. Jin Q, Wang Z, Floudas CS, et al. Matching patients to clinical trials with large language models. Nat Commun. 2024;15:9074. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-53081-z
6. Ochsner Health and Paradigm Health expand access to clinical trials across the Gulf South. News release. Paradigm Health. August 12, 2026. Accessed August 18, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ochsner-health-and-paradigm-health-expand-access-to-clinical-trials-across-the-gulf-south-302849203.html
7. Paradigm Health announces collaboration with the FDA to transform regulatory review of clinical trial data. News release. Paradigm Health. April 28, 2026. August 21, 2026. https://www.paradigmhealth.ai/resources/paradigm-fda-regulatory-review-clinical-trial-data