_v2.png?table=block&id=34b8572f-4728-8090-9b8c-cb9b769a967f&cache=v2)
Do not index
Do not index
Quick tags
- Site:
Tekton Research
- Sponsor:
Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
- Indication:
Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Specialty:
Rheumatology
- Type:
Drug (Biologic)
- EHR:
Practice Fusion
Trial Description
The Phase 2b MK-7240-014 study (NCT07176390) is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluating tulisokibart (MK-7240) in participants with active rheumatoid arthritis. The study is sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC and aims to enroll 182 patients across 61 sites in 11 countries.
Tulisokibart is a biologic targeting active RA in patients already taking methotrexate. Participants receive one of three tulisokibart dose levels or placebo over a 12-week controlled period, followed by a 116-week long-term extension. The primary endpoint is the proportion of participants achieving an ACR20 response (20% improvement in disease activity) at Week 12.
Clinic Description
Tekton Research is a multi-site clinical research network operating across multiple U.S. locations. Their Fort Collins, Colorado site (Site 1008) is one of 61 sites participating in the Merck tulisokibart trial. Tekton’s Director of Patient Engagement drove the decision to bring HealthKey on board. Tekton’s Site Manager is responsible for day-to-day patient screening and chart review at the Fort Collins site.
Challenge
Tekton’s Site Manager had a straightforward problem: she needed to find 3 patients who qualified for a complex Merck RA trial, and her only option was to review charts one at a time.
The trial's eligibility criteria were extensive. Patients needed a confirmed rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis meeting ACR/EULAR 2010 classification criteria, current methotrexate therapy, and limited prior biologic exposure (no more than 2 classes of bDMARDs). Exclusion criteria added further layers: no arthritis with onset before age 17, no cancer history within 5 years, and no active infections. In total, 18 distinct criteria had to be evaluated for every patient.
The Tekton team was pre-screening manually across Practice Fusion, reading through referral notes, lab results, medication histories, and clinical documents for each patient in Tekton's rheumatology population.
"Basically everything that you're doing right now, I've been doing by hand for the past year. I've already tried searching for everybody that's RA and gotten 5,000 people. And I'm like, all right, well that's not gonna work. So you just start at number one.”
Site Manager, Tekton Research
The volume made it unsustainable. Tekton's rheumatology patient population at one partner clinic included over 1,300 potential candidates, and the team was reviewing each one individually to determine whether they might qualify.
Tekton’s Director of Patient Engagement had been evaluating technology solutions for months. The team had already tried another vendor with older AI technology, but that surfaced the same patients they'd already reviewed. She took the lessons from that experience to leadership.
"We can't just sit idle on this. We know that there's a tool out there that's going to open this wide up for us, we just have to keep at it and find the one that works for us. We've learned lots and lots of lessons.”
Director of Patient Engagement, Tekton Research
Solution
Tekton Research selected HealthKey and chose the Merck tulisokibart trial as their pilot. HealthKey onboarded with Tekton on October 16, 2025, connecting to their Practice Fusion EHR system.
Once connected, HealthKey ingested 1,699,578 medical records across 2,087 patients, an average of 814 clinical data points per patient. The data included clinical documents, lab observations, encounter records, medication requests, procedures, conditions, and diagnostic reports.
HealthKey translated the trial's 18 inclusion and exclusion criteria into automated evaluation logic and ran 11,636 individual criteria evaluations across the patient population.
Beyond the standard eligibility screening, Tekton requested a custom addition: a RAPID score for each patient. The RAPID score was not one of the 18 trial criteria. It was a site-specific request that gave the Site Manager a way to prioritize which charts to review first, based on how closely each patient matched the full eligibility profile. This extra layer of ranking turned a flat list of potential matches into a prioritized workflow.
"This RAPID score is helpful. It does make me know what I'm looking for already when I then go into the document. Their RAPID score is three, okay, let me look immediately at their objective and physical and see if they have any swelling. Is it osteo versus arthritis? You already know where to focus."
Site Manager, Tekton Research
Rather than reviewing 1,300 charts from scratch, Tekton’s Site Manager could now start with a ranked list of patients most likely to qualify, each with links to the specific clinical evidence supporting their match.
The Results
2,087 patients and 1.7 million medical records processed.
HealthKey screened Tekton's full rheumatology population against all 18 eligibility criteria. Manually reviewing this volume would have taken approximately 626 hours, or 78 full working days, at the standard rate of 20 minutes per patient chart. HealthKey reduced the coordinator review time to approximately 2 minutes per patient.
37 matched patients. 11 screen passed. 3 candidates contacted.
Of 2,087 patients screened, 31 met every inclusion and exclusion criterion. 11 have passed screening, and 3 candidates have already been contacted about the study. The site's enrollment target is 3 patients, and the qualified pipeline now exceeds that target. The screen pass rate sits at 77.5%, meaning the patients HealthKey surfaces are genuinely qualified, not false positives.
When HealthKey surfaced the first batch of 13 patients who matched all criteria, Tekton’s Director of Patient Engagement’s reaction was immediate: "Hot damn."
"I think whatever algorithm we're using is working. I haven't seen anybody that is completely not gonna qualify. Instead of me going through 1,300 people, I only have to go through 40 people to find those niche 10. If I can find three good patients in here to call, that saves me a lot of time and energy."
Site Manager, Tekton Research
1,300 charts narrowed to 40.
For the Site Manager, the operational shift was immediate. Instead of reviewing every chart in the population, she now works from a filtered list of 40 high-probability candidates to find her target patients. The 97% reduction in review volume freed her to spend time on nuanced clinical judgment rather than data gathering.
Sponsor Reporting
Beyond patient screening, HealthKey gave Tekton visibility into a question sponsors ask constantly: where are patients failing?
With 11,636 criteria evaluations tracked, Tekton can now show Merck exactly which eligibility criteria are filtering out the most patients, and why. This is data that sites rarely have when screening manually.
"This is great because sponsors ask us all the time, well, where are your people failing? And so this is the information."
Director of Patient Engagement, Tekton Research
Looking Ahead
The strongest signal came early. During the training call for the tulisokibart trial, before Tekton’s Site Manager had even finished onboarding, she asked how soon she could expand HealthKey to a second study. The Direct of Patient Engagement’s vision extends further. Tekton is a multi-site research network, and she sees HealthKey as infrastructure for the entire organization.
"I want this to be a tool that we can use forever across all of our sites. We've been wanting a partner like you guys that can get this right for us, that we can work with for a while."
Director of Patient Engagement, Tekton Research
Six months in, Tekton’s Site Manager sees the path forward clearly.
"I would be very sad if we didn't have this help anymore."
Site Manager, Tekton Research
Written by
