An unethical young scientist finds a frog on the side of the road. He takes it in for study and sets it on his desk. He pokes the frog and tells it to jump. The frog leaps an astonishing 4 feet in the air! The scientist records that data and then amputates two of the frog’s legs, pokes it again, yelling “Jump.” The Frog needs no further telling and hops 2 feet in the air. The scientist records this data. To the frog’s dismay, the scientist amputates the frog’s last two legs and orders it to jump a final time. The frog doesn’t move, and the scientist repeats the command. The frog still doesn’t move. The scientist pokes and prods the frog. He begs, pleads, and screams at it but it still doesn’t jump, or even move. Finally, the scientist gives up and makes one final note in his book, “Frog’s with no legs are deaf.”
I’m sure everyone has heard the term “correlation doesn’t prove causation” and the joke I just told is a funny interpretation of that, but it also highlights an important point about how we make inferences and draw conclusions. The world is never as black and white as it may seem, and no year highlighted that better than 2020. We were literally fighting an invisible enemy, predictions and prognostications were made left and right by talking heads, but the real work going on was behind the scenes by non-frog centric scientists running studies and analyzing data.
At OakRidge, we pride ourselves on sourcing the best most usable data spanning thousands of different data flags to fit the needs of our clients campaign. So, when a national clinical research organization partnered with us to improve their study recruitment and enrollment we took this new opportunity in stride. We set up a unique geofencing campaign where we found locations that the specific demographic of participants would frequent, and we began marketing to these folks directly – rather than passively. In fact, our client was so pleased with the results of the data that they allowed OakRidge to absorb all their methods of constant contact to now run through our system.
Of course we were thrilled with the results as well, and we were glad that we successfully executed on a unique client request. All that being said, as we come out of the pandemic and re-adjust to post COVID life, this project allowed us at OakRidge to reflect on how we are able to use the tools we built not just to market ground-breaking products and ideas, but how the work we do can actually be used to bring products to market that could one day save someone’s life.
We are excited to wade deeper into the greenfield that is the world of clinical research and clinical trials, and are eager to jump in feet first…..unlike the frog.
Corey Barsky is the Business Development Director at OakRidge Consulting. Barsky has functioned as senior data strategist and grassroots coordinator working with clients to optimize their brand reinforcement, and penetration of their name ID. Coming from his hometown of Philadelphia, Barsky plans on remaining in Pittsburgh where he currently resides, since obtaining a degree in Neuroscience.
