Supporting Patients with Friedreich’s Ataxia: Seamless Travel and Reimbursement in a Global Study

The Challenge

A leading global biopharmaceutical company contracted mdgroup to provide travel coordination and reimbursement support for patients participating in a long-term clinical trial for Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) – a rare, inherited disease that causes progressive damage to the nervous system. Symptoms such as difficulty walking, slurred speech, and chronic fatigue make long-distance travel particularly challenging.

Over the course of the study, more than 90 patients from 9 different countries were required to travel regularly to trial sites, often accompanied by one or two caregivers. Many of these journeys involved international flights, extended accommodation stays, and other logistical complexities. To enable participation, the client needed a trusted partner to manage these logistics with care and sensitivity.

The Solution

mdgroup’s ondemand and navigator teams provided personalised, white-glove service for each participant, tailoring arrangements to their specific health and comfort needs. This included:

• Pre-booked flights, hotel stays, and ground transportation with no upfront cost to the patient or family.
• Flexibility to accommodate patient preferences such as airline choice, flight timing, and accessibility requirements.
• Dedicated multilingual Project Coordinators available by phone—even on weekends—to provide responsive, compassionate support in the participant’s native language.
• Timely reimbursement for incidental travel expenses, food, and beverages.
• Close coordination with the travel team to ensure professional drivers and accommodation met patients’ unique needs.

This highly personalised approach was essential to alleviating the stress of travel and enabling continued participation in the study.

The Outcome

Thanks to mdgroup’s seamless logistics and patient-first approach, participants were able to attend every required site visit without delay, supporting retention and treatment continuity. The impact speaks for itself:

• Over 200 reimbursements paid directly to patients
• More than 50 site visits supported, including 40 international flights
• Over 90 patients from 9 countries have been successfully supported over 2 years

The result for the client was a high retention rate and a low withdrawal rate, which helped ensure consistent data collection and trial integrity.

Patient Perspective

At the heart of this study is the patient experience. One participant shared how mdgroup’s support transformed their ability to take part in the trial:

“My family feels safe and truly supported with mdgroup handling all the logistics in such a caring, compassionate, and professional way. The service has been first class throughout.

Being able to speak directly to our project coordinator, in our own language, even on weekends, makes an enormous difference. It brings comfort and trust to a process that could otherwise feel overwhelming.

Having flights, hotels, and transportation booked in advance, at no cost to us, has been essential to our ability to participate in the trial. The mdgroup team always listened to our preferences, like choosing specific airlines or flight times, arranging accommodation that suited our needs, and assigning professional drivers who understood the challenges of the disease.

I’ve had direct access to both the travel team and our navigator coordinator, and their response has always been immediate and helpful.

Even additional expenses like food, drinks, or any extra transport have been reimbursed quickly. With logistics so expertly managed, we’ve been able to focus entirely on the treatment, it’s helped me knowing my family feels safe and comfortable.”

This project exemplifies how mdgroup delivers more than logistics; we provide peace of mind. By removing barriers to participation through expert travel and reimbursement support, we enable patients to stay focused on what matters most: their health.

 

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