Trialify: A Patient-Inspired App Simplifies Clinical Trial Matching for Cancer Patients

Thaddeus Reichley, a Sleepy Hollow resident diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma (搜索)搜索该疾病 originating from the pleural cavity surrounding his right lung in 2023, faced a challenge familiar to many cancer patients: finding clinical trials he could actually understand and qualify for. Despite becoming well-educated about his disease, its DNA markers, and the nuances of his specific cancer, the scientific jargon and opaque eligibility criteria on trial listings proved overwhelming.

"I was getting really frustrated with trying to figure out what was available, what was close enough to home and deciphering the language," Reichley said. "I was very well educated at that point on my disease, the different DNA markers that I had and the different aspects of my specific cancer. And still I had a really hard time looking at these clinical trials."

Reichley's cancer — a type that does not typically respond well to chemotherapy or radiation — forced him to focus on immunotherapy and targeted therapies, neither of which brought him much success. With every week and month carrying life-or-death weight, the inability to quickly discern trial timeframes, enrollment capacity, and geographic feasibility became a critical barrier.

From Frustration to Innovation

The turning point came during a coffee meeting with former Marin resident Ken Kurtzig, a veteran tech entrepreneur who had previously connected with Reichley through Mark Day School in San Rafael. Kurtzig runs the Impact App Challenge (搜索)搜索该词条, an entrepreneurship program that empowers high school students to develop and launch social or environmental applications.

When Kurtzig mentioned he was helping teens brainstorm app ideas, Reichley shared his struggle. "I said to him, 'I'm actually having a frustration right now myself around finding clinical trials, and if they wanted something with a real-world, immediate impact, I think this could be something that could be very interesting for them to pursue,'" Reichley recounted. Soon after, he was advising the student team directly.

The Developers Behind Trialify

This spring, Branson School junior Jaya Breene and Truckee High School sophomore Cooper Marr brought Reichley's vision to life with Trialify (搜索)搜索该药品, an application that aggregates information from clinicaltrials.gov — the National Institutes of Health查看公司主页's clinical trial registry — and presents it in a more accessible format for patients, who can then bring relevant trial information to their physicians.

The two teens, who had never met before the project, both brought personal motivations to the work. Marr, whose father works in oncology, saw the project as "a really good way to bring this cancer research into the hands of patients in the real world." Breene, who lost both grandparents to cancer, viewed clinical trials as "a means to find cures or just update and make advancements on the already existing treatments."

Though both had taken computer science classes, Trialify (搜索)搜索该药品 represented their first attempt at building an application of this nature. "They were very impressive. I was really amazed with what they came up with in such a short period of time," Reichley said.

A Patient-Centered Approach to Trial Matching

Reichley, who is currently enrolled in a clinical trial he found through his medical team, emphasized that many patients must navigate the search process alone. Trialify (搜索)搜索该药品 is designed to bridge that gap — translating complex trial listings into actionable information that patients can discuss with their doctors.

"I was also really impressed that they were willing to take on something like this that might not necessarily impact their world, but that they were willing to look and see that this is something that could really be a benefit to a lot of people," Reichley said. "I thought that was a pretty mature thing for them to take on something like this."