Top 5 Takeaways: What We Learned With Walgreens at SCRS 2026

On October 16 at SCRS, Trially CEO Kyle McAllister sat down with Lindsay McIntire, Head of Patient Research Access Operations at Walgreens, for a happy hour conversation at our booth.

It began with a toast:

Walgreens is partnering with Trially to create a new clinical trial access model that connects research leaders with its 131 million-patient network.

Sponsors and CROs can now check trial feasibility of their planned (and unplanned) sites, select sites with evidence and launch recruitment campaign outreach. Margo, Trially’s patient engagement agent, contacts patients by voice, text and email under the Walgreens name, pre-screens them and books likely candidates directly into the site’s calendar.

Here are five things we’re taking away from that discussion.

1. Retail pharmacy is focusing on recruitment.

Around 2021 and 2022, the big retail pharmacies all moved into clinical trials. Most left. After CVS announced its exit in 2023, every Walgreens sponsor meeting started with the same question: how do I know you won’t shut down too? Walgreens stayed, narrowed its focus to what pharmacy does best, which is recruitment, and is seeing significant year-over-year revenue growth.

2. Not all trials are a fit

78% of Americans live within five miles of a Walgreens, but proximity is not participation. Pharmacy data is a strong fit for vaccines, cardiometabolic, early cancer detection and chronic conditions like asthma and COPD. Observational or registry studies make a lot of sense; hospital-based trials not as much.

When it comes to AI-based recruitment, the sweet spot is medium-complexity, high-volume studies, not rare disease or complex oncology. For Alzheimer’s, MCI and mental health, skip the AI voice and use text or a person.

3. Trust is the recruitment channel

Walgreens referrals are 20% more likely to enroll than patients from other sources, with 80% retention when patients stay in one care relationship. In a BARDA head-to-head study, Walgreens stood up 20 new sites and enrolled 2,500 patients faster than the traditional model.

AI outreach leads with a name the patient knows, never with a diagnosis.

4. Put a human-in-the-lead (not just the “loop”)

AI should do the heavy lifting on first touch and pre-screening; people make the decisions. In the Walgreens model, the clinical work stays with sites and investigators, and sites get pre-screened patients on their calendar instead of a list to work. We are freeing up humans to do more high-value work by taking cumbersome chart reviews and cold calling off their plate.

5. AI isn’t going anywhere

AI is not going anywhere, so the question is where it can help you first. We advise you to start small. Pick one use case and test it in the next 30 days.

Look for the mundane work that eats your team’s week: first outreach, chart review, rewriting an underperforming ad, or reviewing inclusion and exclusion criteria with a sponsor. Hand that to AI, and give your coordinators back the time for the patient conversations only they can have.

See how many Walgreens patients are near your sites

If you are a site, sponsor or CRO and want to see how many Walgreens patients live near your sites, at no cost, get in touch with Trially.