Making Clinical Research More Accessible for Patients, Physicians & Researchers
C/A partnered with HonorHealth Research Institute to design and develop a custom digital experience that balances sophisticated research infrastructure with a patient-first user experience.
HonorHealth Research Institute is one of the nation’s leading destinations for biomedical research, connecting patients with innovative clinical trials while advancing breakthroughs in cancer, neuroscience and other specialties.
As the institute expanded its research programs, its website needed to do far more than communicate information. It had to help patients discover clinical trials, support referring physicians, showcase research expertise and reinforce the institute’s growing national reputation.
Casual Astronaut partnered with HonorHealth Research Institute to design and develop a custom digital experience that balances sophisticated research infrastructure with a patient-first user experience.
The Challenge
The new site needed to satisfy multiple audiences with very different goals while remaining closely integrated with the larger HonorHealth ecosystem. Key requirements included:
- A modern experience aligned with the HonorHealth brand
- A dedicated CMS hosted independently from the primary website
- A sophisticated research directory spanning multiple divisions and programs
- An intuitive clinical trial search experience
- Dynamic integrations with existing research systems and databases
Our Approach
Rather than organizing the site around the institution, we organized it around the people using it.
- Patients needed confidence and clarity.
- Referring physicians needed fast access to research programs and investigators.
- Researchers needed accurate, searchable profiles that could be maintained without creating administrative burden.
This audience-first strategy shaped everything from the information architecture and navigation to the integrations powering the site’s dynamic content.
Clinical Trial Finder
Instead of forcing patients to navigate the complexity of ClinicalTrials.gov, we created a search experience designed around how people actually look for care. Patients can search by:
- Research program
- Principal investigator
- Research division
Each trial page presents the information patients need most — including eligibility requirements, cancer type and a plain-language summary — with built-in print and email tools that make it easy to discuss opportunities with their physician. To ensure accuracy, trial data synchronizes daily with both ClinicalTrials.gov and HonorHealth’s OnCore Clinical Trial Management System.
Intelligent Researcher Profiles
Managing hundreds of physician and researcher profiles manually wasn’t sustainable. We designed a submission and editorial workflow that allowed researchers to submit and update their own information while giving the communications team full editorial oversight before publication. The workflow included:
- Guided profile submission
- Editorial review and AP-style editing
- Revision tracking
- Approval workflow
- Status dashboards for administrators
Flexible Leadership Profiles
Executive leaders often wear multiple hats — as researchers, physicians and administrators. We developed custom profile templates that supported unique leadership biographies and photography while continuing to synchronize research credentials from HonorHealth’s membership database. This created a consistent experience without sacrificing the flexibility needed for executive communications.
Research Directory & Content Platform
The website brings together a complex research ecosystem into a single, intuitive experience, including:
- 20+ research programs
- 5 research divisions
- 12 research locations
- Executive leadership
- Events calendar
- Searchable researcher directory
Making Research More Accessible
The redesigned website provides a scalable digital foundation that supports HonorHealth Research Institute’s mission to advance medical discovery while making research more accessible to the people who need it. Patients can more easily identify relevant clinical trials. Researchers benefit from streamlined profile management. Referring physicians have faster access to expertise and programs. And the organization now has a flexible platform capable of growing alongside its expanding research initiatives.