We believe bold ideas go further when powered by partnership. That belief is what drove us to create and expand the AIRE Mobile Unit – a unique collaboration among industry peers, grassroots communities and our own employee network – to address one of the most pressing challenges in healthcare: broader access to clinical trials.
From Idea to Impact: Year One
At AstraZeneca, we’re not just transforming healthcare – we’re working to ensure equitable access so that everyone has the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Even if that means driving it directly to their neighborhood. In May 2024, we launched the AIRE (Accelerating Innovations and Research Excellence in Clinical Trials) Mobile Unit – a mobile clinical research bus bringing clinical trial opportunities to patients right in their own communities. Our goal with this effort was to reduce barriers to trial participation and expand trial representation.
Within the first year, we made more than 500 local stops including more than 100 community health fairs in the Los Angeles, CA and San Antonio, TX metropolitan areas. We reached more than 15,500 individuals directly – many in their native languages – increasing clinical trial education and disease awareness, empowering patients to take control of their health. But getting the wheels spinning on this takes a team effort.
Innovation Begins with “We”
With innovation and collaboration at the heart of everything we do at AstraZeneca, we know our impact can be stronger when we work with others, leveraging one another’s abilities for a common goal. These principles continue to guide our efforts to increase clinical trial participation and representation.
We knew collaboration would be what set this program apart by collaborating and harnessing our collective strengths, we can achieve greater success, ultimately benefitting patients.
IQVIA emerged as a strategic partner for the AIRE Mobile Unit program as our organizations are united by a shared mission: expanding clinical trial access and awareness in the communities we serve. A shared emphasis on collaboration – especially to ensure accessible and patient-centered clinical trials – also fueled our partnership.
While we knew our goal with the Unit and where we wanted to go, we needed help getting there. Enter: BusTest Express. The third- and fourth-generation family-owned and -run organization with more than 70 years of mobile innovation experience originally outfitted buses to take children using mobility devices to and from school. The team’s deep knowledge of logistics and transportation operations management, honed over decades in the mobile sector, was instrumental. It allowed our AstraZeneca and IQVIA teams to focus on designing and implementing the program, while BusTest express managed logistics and ensured the AIRE Mobile Unit’s safe arrival at each destination.
The focus of the AIRE Mobile Unit program was always to meet patients where they are, in their own communities. We needed a reliable and visible place to park the AIRE Mobile Unit where people would organically notice. With more than 8,500 store locations throughout the US and a long history of trusted community pharmacies, Walgreens stood out as the clear partner of choice.
Our mission is to bring clinical research and clinical trials to those communities that historically simply don’t have access. We very quickly fell in love with the fact that there was mission alignment between our two organizations.
Walgreens not only provided their locations’ parking lots for the AIRE Mobile Unit to set up, but support from store employees helped spread the word to patrons about its program in a trusted, community-based voice among their own neighbors.
“Store staff have shared a sentiment and appreciation for being involved and feeling like they have a hand in supporting their community – giving the opportunity for their community to be involved in such an initiative,”
Critical data has been provided by Walgreens store partners, as well. Their analysis of front-of-store data examining peak foot traffic times, knowledge of parking lot footprint sizes and their deeply rooted community involvement – and earned trust – has informed our program and allowed us to optimize to reach more people.
The Road Ahead for the AIRE Mobile Unit
We are confident that our program and its emphasis on peer and cross-sector partnerships can serve as an example of what can be done when we work together to put patients first. In the coming months, the program will be expanding its roadmap to include Pasadena, CA, bringing lung screenings to first responders from and people impacted by the January wildfires. Check back here for an overview of that important work later in 2025. With each mile and every stop, the AIRE Mobile Unit is turning vision into action, driving lasting change for patients and clinical research.
