Acclinate

Acclinate is a clinical trial diversity and health equity platform that combines community engagement with patented artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. Founded by Del Smith, PhD, and Tiffany Whitlow, the company was built on the premise that traditional clinical research has not been designed with or for the communities most affected by disease. Acclinate serves pharmaceutical sponsors — including seven of the top ten pharma companies globally — by delivering predictive, representative enrollment data intended to reduce operational risk, close representation gaps, and accelerate trial timelines.

The company operates through a model it describes as Touch + Tech: an always-on community network called NOWINCLUDED, paired with a patented AI/ML engine called e-DICT. Together, these components convert community trust signals into actionable enrollment intelligence. Acclinate reports a community of over 200,000 members, more than 1,000 community events conducted, support for over 50 clinical trials across 35 therapeutic areas, and an overall multi-channel reach exceeding 31 million people.

Core Platform Components

• NOWINCLUDED Community (Input): A proprietary, authenticated community of 200,000+ members generating structured behavioral and sentiment signals across channels and therapeutic areas. The community is described as culturally grounded and built on an Affective Trust Framework designed to reduce psychological barriers to research participation among historically underrepresented populations.
• e-DICT (Engine): Acclinate's patented AI/ML engine that transforms real-world trust signals from the NOWINCLUDED community into structured enrollment intelligence. Outputs include a Participation Probability Index (PPI), study- and site-level insights, demographic forecasting, real-time dashboards, and predictive scoring.
• Predictive Enrollment Intelligence (Output): Data products covering reach and alignment, site readiness and retention risk, behavioral readiness, engagement trends, and participation likelihood — intended to give sponsors data-driven visibility into enrollment feasibility before and during trials.

Three-Stage Engagement Model

• Access: Reaching underrepresented populations through culturally aligned content and trusted community channels to build initial awareness.
• Engage: Converting awareness into genuine interest through in-person events, storytelling, and personalized experiences that generate behavioral signals indicating trial readiness.
• Mobilize: Moving high-intent individuals through pre-screeners, connecting them with trial sites, and facilitating progression toward enrollment.

Solutions by Function

• Clinical Operations: Provides predictive intelligence and community pipelines to close representation gaps, strengthen enrollment feasibility, and accelerate timelines across therapeutic areas.
• Commercial and Marketing: Supports compliant, unbranded disease education and omnichannel engagement for pharmaceutical commercial teams navigating regulatory scrutiny around direct-to-consumer communications, grounded in cultural trust and behavioral data.
• Patient Insights: Amplifies patient and caregiver voices, collects real-world sentiment, and translates community insights into more inclusive protocol design and post-market understanding.
• Community Partnerships: Collaborates with local organizations to expand reach, deepen trust, and surface insights that inform both clinical and commercial strategies.

Affective Trust Framework

• Underpins all community engagement activity, with each touchpoint designed to reduce friction, address unspoken fears, and respect lived experience.
• Captures barrier insight, real-time sentiment, health knowledge levels, and participation intent as structured data signals.
• Intended to create the psychological safety considered necessary for enrollment among communities with historical reasons for distrust of medical research.

Company Background and Differentiation

• Founded by Del Smith, PhD (Co-Founder and CEO), whose background spans genomics, academia, and healthcare innovation, and Tiffany Whitlow (Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer), who brings experience in community engagement, brand strategy, and culturally relevant communication.
• Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, with team members across multiple U.S. locations including Huntsville, Washington D.C., Dallas, and Tampa.
• Raised $7 million in Series A funding (announced May 2024) to support growth.
• Recognized among the best tech startups in Alabama and featured in national media coverage related to clinical trial diversity and health equity.
• Co-Founder Tiffany Whitlow was named a Top 250 Female Founder by Inc. magazine.
• Has partnered with organizations including Alabama Regional Medical Services, the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District, and clinical trial recruitment company Trialbee.
• Differentiating factors cited include over five years of national community engagement, exclusive access to representative community data signals, a patented predictive AI/ML engine, and enterprise-scale operations.

Documented Impact

• A maternal and fetal health case study highlights engagement with over 18,000 community members, collection of 164 in-depth surveys from mothers, and filming of 98 personal stories through the NOWINCLUDED platform — focused on addressing disproportionate rates of maternal and infant mortality in Black communities.
• The company has announced undergraduate and graduate academic scholarships as part of its broader health equity mission.

Acclinate positions itself at the intersection of community trust and predictive data science, serving pharmaceutical sponsors that need to meet regulatory and scientific requirements for diverse clinical trial enrollment while building longer-term relationships with underrepresented patient communities.