Introducing the Sano Referral Manager: Bridging the gap from referral to randomization

Clinical trial recruitment is notoriously difficult – and nowhere is this more acute than at the referral stage. When a participant who looks potentially eligible is referred by a patient advocacy group, HCP, or site, it is not uncommon for them to fall out of touch before enrolling. Manual handoffs, scattered systems, and limited visibility are common culprits.

Clinical trial teams know that when a participant is referred, that can be powerful – but it’s no guarantee of enrollment. One study showed that only 11% of patients flagged as potentially eligible were ever referred to study teams, and just 4% were ultimately enrolled. Why? Time-strapped providers, manual communication, and no clear workflow for following up. 

Despite efforts to patch this gap with spreadsheets, emails, and legacy IRT tools, the problem persists. These workarounds create blind spots where referred participants go dark and coordinators lose track. It’s no surprise that delays from referral mismanagement contribute significantly to trial extensions, missed milestones, and wasted recruitment spend.

⭐️ But what if referred participants didn’t slip through the cracks? What if you could close the loop, gain visibility into every referred patient, and accelerate enrollment from the moment a referral is made?

Enter Sano’s new Referral Manager. This new product feature solves the referral drop off problem by tracking every referral, ensuring that no eligible candidate is left behind. 

Feature spotlight: Referral Manager

“The centers most successful at clinical trial enrollment are those that prioritize inviting every single patient who might be eligible.”

- Karen Winkfield, MD, PhD, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

Sano Genetics is proud to launch our Referral Manager, a purpose-built solution that gives biotechs and pharma companies a clear view of all referrals, in just one tool.

🧩 What it does:

Sano's Referral Manager captures, matches, and tracks externally referred participants in a single transparent workflow. Rather than leaving referrals in a black box, the feature enables teams to:

• Capture every referral
• Auto-match to eligibility criteria
• Track status across screening and enrollment
• Eliminate email chains and spreadsheets with automated workflows and in-platform tools

This unlocks full oversight and reduces the risk of losing participants due to fragmented handoffs.

📋 How it works (3 steps):

1. Define your referral goals: As part of your participant-finding program, Sano works with you to identify referral needs - whether it's sending participants off-platform to a trial site, CRO, or third-party study. Based on your input, we configure the study setup, referral criteria, and any active sites within the Sano platform.

2. Let matching run automatically: Once live, participants who meet the pre-defined eligibility criteria are automatically matched - ensuring timely handoff without manual screening.

3. Track progress across your trial: Your referral managers and site representatives receive instant notifications when participants are matched. From there, they can update statuses, log notes, and monitor participant progress directly in-platform - no spreadsheets or email threads required.

By integrating with Sano’s existing digital prescreen and eConsent tools, referrals are no longer an afterthought – they’re part of a unified recruitment experience.

Impact and outcomes

Though recently launched, the Referral Manager is already making a difference: Manual follow-ups that used to take two weeks now completed in just a few days.

And the industry data backs this up: studies show that referral workflows reliant on emails or phone calls introduce “time-consuming” friction that automation can eliminate. Sano’s feature builds on these insights, removing every unnecessary handoff and offering a quicker route to enrollment.

🗣 One client who beta tested this feature described it as “super cool” and “incredibly useful for referrals.”

See referral in action

Sano’s Referral Manager is a fix for one of the most frustrating bottlenecks in trial recruitment. Want to see how it works? 📅 Book a custom demo with our team. 

We’ll show you how to integrate referrals from external partners, streamline enrollment, and eliminate referral drop-off, with your studies and workflows in mind.

No more black holes. No more spreadsheets. Just faster, more reliable referrals with full visibility from start to finish.