Patient Experience Blog Archives

Supported Patients, Successful Trials – Reflections from Real Clinical Trials

Posted | April 7, 2026

At mdgroup, we see every day how personalized support and patient-centered care can transform a participant’s experience and, ultimately, the success of a trial. When patients feel supported, understood and…

Susanna Neuvonen

Love1

mdgroup live

mdgroup live episode 2: Sarah Woods: From Rare Disease Patient, to Rare Mom & Advocate

Posted | February 26, 2026

mdgroup live is our webinar series shining a spotlight on the people and stories behind clinical research. Too often, the human voices behind trials are hidden behind data and paperwork.…

Susanna Neuvonen

Love3

Meet the Team

Why We Care: A Family’s Fight for Rare Disease Answers – Karen’s Story

Posted | January 26, 2026

At mdgroup, clinical research is more than a profession — it’s personal. Why We Care is a series of real-life stories from our team, sharing how clinical trials have touched their own lives,…

Susanna Neuvonen

Love5

Industry Insights

The Future of Clinical Trials: Hybrid by Design, Patient-Driven by Choice

Posted | January 19, 2026

The future of clinical trials is not fully decentralized—it’s hybrid. While traditional site-based trials remain essential, the industry is increasingly adopting hybrid models that blend on-site visits with decentralized elements…

Alex Cheesman

Love3

mdgroup live

mdgroup live episode 1: Peter DiBiaso from Professional to Patient

Posted | December 11, 2025

mdgroup live is our new webinar series shining a spotlight on the people and stories behind clinical research. Too often, the human voices behind trials are hidden behind data and…

Alex Cheesman

Love5

woman with dark hair hugging happily an elderly woman with gray hair

Patient Experience

5 Reasons a Patient-First Approach Works at Every Stage of a Clinical Trial

Posted | November 5, 2025

Clinical trials are essential for medical advancements, but for the patients and families involved, the experience can be complex, emotional and challenging. At mdgroup, we understand that a patient-first approach…

Susanna Neuvonen

Love3

Guides

The True Cost Of Patient Drop-outs In Clinical Trials

Posted | October 1, 2025

For a long time, pharmaceutical companies have focused primarily on recruitment when it comes to patient involvement in clinical trials. But recruitment is not the end of the story.

mdgroup

Love4

Hybrid & Decentralized Trials

Removing Barriers to Clinical Trial Participation for People Living with Rare Diseases

Posted | September 23, 2025

For people living with rare diseases, clinical trial participation is often more than an opportunity to contribute to research. It can be their best hope of accessing potentially life-changing therapies.…

Alex Cheesman

Love4

nurse checking heart health from a baby in a white bodysuit in paediatric clinical trial

Patient-Centric Research

Creating Better Experiences for Families in Paediatric Clinical Trials

Posted | July 2, 2025

Paediatric clinical trials are essential for ensuring that medications and treatments are safe and effective for infants, children and adolescents. Yet despite their importance, paediatric trials are among the most…

Susanna Neuvonen

Love5

Cookie	Duration	Description
__hssc	30 minutes	HubSpot sets this cookie to keep track of sessions and to determine if HubSpot should increment the session number and timestamps in the __hstc cookie.
__hssrc	session	This cookie is set by Hubspot whenever it changes the session cookie. The __hssrc cookie set to 1 indicates that the user has restarted the browser, and if the cookie does not exist, it is assumed to be a new session.
_cfuvid	session	Cookie is used to allow the Cloudflare WAF to distinguish individual users who share the same IP address.
_GRECAPTCHA	5 months 27 days	Google Recaptcha service sets this cookie to identify bots to protect the website against malicious spam attacks.
_hjClosedSurveyInvites	365 days	Set when a user interacts with a Link Survey invitation modal. Ensures the same invite does not reappear if it has already been shown. 365 days duration. List of Survey IDs, URL encoded.
_hjCookieTest	Deleted almost immediately after it is created	Checks to see if the Hotjar Tracking Code can use cookies. If it can, a value of 1 is set. Deleted almost immediately after it is created. Under 100ms duration, cookie expiration time set to session duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjDonePolls	365 days	Set when a user completes an on-site Survey. Ensures the same Survey does not reappear if it has already been filled in. 365 days duration. List of Survey IDs, URL encoded.
_hjHasCachedUserAttributes	session	Enables us to know whether the data set in _hjUserAttributes Local Storage item is up to date or not. Session duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjLocalStorageTest	Data stored in _hjLocalStorageTest has no expiration time, but it is deleted almost immediately after it is created.	Checks if the Hotjar Tracking Code can use Local Storage. If it can, a value of 1 is set. Data stored in _hjLocalStorageTest has no expiration time, but it is deleted almost immediately after it is created. Under 100ms duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjMinimizedPolls	365 days	Set when a user minimizes an on-site Survey. Ensures that the Survey stays minimized when the user navigates through your site. 365 days duration. List of Survey IDs, URL encoded.
_hjSession_{site_id}	30 minutes duration, extended on user activity.	Holds current session data. Ensures subsequent requests in the session window are attributed to the same session. 30 minutes duration, extended on user activity. JSON data type.
_hjSessionStorageTest	Data stored in _hjSessionStorageTest has no expiration time, but it is deleted almost immediately after it is created.	Checks if the Hotjar Tracking Code can use Session Storage. If it can, a value of 1 is set. Data stored in _hjSessionStorageTest has no expiration time, but it is deleted almost immediately after it is created. Under 100ms duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjSessionUser_{site_id}	365 days	Set when a user first lands on a page. Persists the Hotjar User ID which is unique to that site. Hotjar does not track users across different sites. Ensures data from subsequent visits to the same site are attributed to the same user ID. 365 days duration. JSON data type.
_hjShownFeedbackMessage	One day	Set when a user minimizes or completes a Feedback widget. Ensures the Feedback widget will load as minimized if the user navigates to another page where it is set to show. One day duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjTLDTest	session	We try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. Enables us to try to determine the most generic cookie path to use, instead of page hostname. It means that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). After this check, the cookie is removed. Session duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjUserAttributes	No explicit expiration	Stores User Attributes sent through the Hotjar Identify API. No explicit expiration. Base64 encoded JSON data type.
_hjUserAttributesHash	2 minutes duration, extended every 30 seconds	Enables us to know when any User Attribute has changed and needs to be updated. 2 minutes duration, extended every 30 seconds. Content hash data type.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	1 year	Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie records the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	1 year	Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie records the user consent for the cookies in the "Analytics" category.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	1 year	The GDPR Cookie Consent plugin sets the cookie to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	1 year	Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie records the user consent for the cookies in the "Necessary" category.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary	1 year	GDPR Cookie Consent plugin sets this cookie to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Necessary" category.
CookieLawInfoConsent	1 year	Records the default button state of the corresponding category along with the status of CCPA.
hjActiveViewportIds	Stores an expiration Timestamp	Stores user active viewports IDs. Stores an expiration Timestamp that is used to validate active viewports on script initialization. JSON data type.
hjViewportId	session	Stores user viewport details such as size and dimensions. Session duration. UUID data type.
PHPSESSID	1 day	This cookie is native to PHP applications and is used to store and identify a users' unique session in order to manage user sessions on the website.
viewed_cookie_policy	1 year	This primary cookie monitors the user’s consent to the use of cookies when they click on the following buttons: "Accept": to give consent. "No": to deny consent. No personal information is collected by this cookie and its activation depends only on response to the user’s action (Accept/No).

Cookie	Duration	Description
__hstc	5 months 27 days	Hubspot set this main cookie for tracking visitors. It contains the domain, initial timestamp (first visit), last timestamp (last visit), current timestamp (this visit), and session number (increments for each subsequent session).
_ga	1 year 1 month 4 days	Google Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.
_ga_*	1 year 1 month 4 days	Google Analytics sets this cookie to store and count page views.
_gcl_au	3 months	This cookie is used by Google Analytics to understand user interaction with the website.
AnalyticsSyncHistory	1 month	Linkedin set this cookie to store information about the time a sync took place with the lms_analytics cookie.
hubspotutk	5 months 27 days	HubSpot sets this cookie to keep track of the visitors to the website. This cookie is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts.
ln_or	1 day	Linkedin sets this cookie to registers statistical data on users' behaviour on the website for internal analytics.

Cookie	Duration	Description
__cf_bm	30 minutes	Cloudflare set the cookie to support Cloudflare Bot Management.
li_gc	5 months 27 days	Linkedin set this cookie for storing visitor's consent regarding using cookies for non-essential purposes.
lidc	1 day	LinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection.
UserMatchHistory	1 month	LinkedIn sets this cookie for LinkedIn Ads ID syncing.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_fbp	3 months	Facebook sets this cookie to measure, optimise and build audiences for ad campaigns.
bcookie	1 year	LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser IDs.
bscookie	1 year	LinkedIn sets this cookie to store performed actions on the website.
datr	1 month 4 days	Facebook sets this cookie to measure, optimise and build audiences for ad campaigns.
fr	3 months	Facebook sets this cookie to measure, optimise and build audiences for ad campaigns.
li_sugr	3 months	LinkedIn sets this cookie to collect user behaviour data to optimise the website and make advertisements on the website more relevant.
sb	1 month 4 days	Facebook sets this cookie to measure, optimise and build audiences for ad campaigns.
usida	session	Facebook sets this cookie to measure, optimise and build audiences for ad campaigns.
wd	7 days	Facebook sets this cookie to measure, optimise and build audiences for ad campaigns.

Patient Experience

Subscribe for news, views and more

Cookies