“There are trials out there that give people hope. Our job is to make sure no one misses out on that chance because of slow processes.”
In the heart of the Midwest – where BBQ smoke mixes with startup ambition – a new breed of innovation is transforming medicine’s most stubborn bottleneck. Kansas City’s very own Trially is fast becoming the go-to solution for one of healthcare’s toughest challenges: connecting patients with the right clinical trials at the right time.
Clinical trials are the engines of medical progress, but for decades, enrolling the right people has been painfully slow and inefficient. Nearly nine out of ten trials are delayed due to recruitment challenges, costing the industry hundreds of thousands of dollars per day and, more importantly, keeping life-changing treatments out of patients’ reach. Trially tackles this with artificial intelligence that does more than surface matches – it accelerates hope.
Engineering a Cure Through AI Innovation
“AI should feel like a teammate, not a black box,” says Kyle McAllister, Trially’s CEO and co-founder. For Kyle, this mission is personal: he once dreamed of becoming a pediatrician and was driven by a desire to help patients earlier in their therapeutic journey. Today, he channels that drive into building technology that helps clinical researchers and patients alike.
Founded in 2023 with fellow co-founders Ramon Prieto (CTO) and Trevor Welch (CPO), Trially blends deep domain knowledge with world-class engineering. “We knew the problem – we lived it,” Kyle explains. “The whole industry is drowning in data, but drowning doesn’t mean you can use it.”
Ramon, the team’s technical architect, brings precision and infrastructure expertise honed at tech powerhouses. “Data isn’t just numbers,” he says. “It’s meaning. And extracting meaning accurately and ethically – that’s how patients get access to treatments faster.” Before Trially, Ramon designed systems capable of wrangling massive datasets, giving him an edge in building AI that understands clinical nuance.
Trevor, whose work centers on product experience and generative models, agrees: “If the interface isn’t intuitive, the smartest model in the world won’t help anybody. We want to make things stupid simple: that’s our internal motto.” His design philosophy is rooted in real empathy for the clinicians who use Trially daily.
From Complexity to Clarity: How Trially Works
At its core, Trially applies advanced AI – including HIPAA-compliant LLM agents – to solve three painfully persistent problems in the clinical trial process:
- Match: The platform scans vast medical records and trial protocols to instantly match patients to trials with ~95 % accuracy, a task that once consumed hundreds of hours of manual review.
- Connect: Through its AI assistant “Margo,” Trially doesn’t just identify potential candidates – it engages them. Automated outreach by voice, text, and email brings eligible participants into the conversation.
- Intelligence: Beyond patient matches, Trially gives research sites and sponsors live feasibility analytics and alerts for studies that align with specific patient populations. This real-time insight drives smarter decisions and unlocks new trial opportunities.
Kyle sums it up with a simple yet powerful thought: “We’re not just matching data with criteria – we’re matching people with possibilities.”
A Culture of Empathy and Impact
Trially’s founders didn’t set out to create another tech startup; they wanted to tackle a human problem. In clinical research, time isn’t an abstract metric – it’s measured in patients. For families dealing with Alzheimer’s or rare diseases, every year counts. “There are trials out there that give people hope,” Kyle says. “Our job is to make sure no one misses out on that chance because of slow processes.”
This ethos drives the team’s daily work. Trevor notes, “We’d rather build something that helps one patient than win a design award.” Ramon adds, “That clarity of purpose keeps us humble and focused – this is bigger than us.”
Their Kansas City roots shape that identity, too. “KC’s startup scene isn’t Silicon Valley, but it’s scrappy, supportive, and real,” Kyle reflects. “We’re building here because our community values collaboration and grit – qualities that define us.”
Real Results – and a Future in Motion
Trially’s real-world impact has begun to show. In clinical networks using the platform, trial enrollments have increased two- to six-fold, screen failure rates have dropped by roughly 73 %, and the time spent on manual chart reviews has plunged – allowing clinicians to focus on patient care instead of paperwork.
Those measurable successes helped Trially secure a $4.7 million seed round, fueling growth and the next phase of innovation. “Investors aren’t just backing our technology,” Kyle says. “They’re backing our vision of a future where clinical trials are faster, fairer, and more inclusive.”
As they scale, the co-founders envision an even broader impact. Ramon imagines a future where AI tools unlock equity in trial participation. “The data we work with reflects real lives,” he says. “If we can reduce bias and give every eligible patient an equal shot, we’re doing more than innovating – we’re reshaping outcomes.”
Trevor adds, “This is just the beginning. We’re exploring enhancements that help sites engage participants better and make every step of the journey more humane.”
The Kansas City Legacy
In a city known for blending tradition with innovation, Trially stands out as a company that channels both heart and high tech. Its founders are not just engineers and strategists – they are problem solvers driven by empathy, purpose, and the belief that technology should expand access to life-changing care.
As clinical trial innovation continues to evolve, Kansas City’s Trially is proving that the future of medicine doesn’t just come from data – it comes from people who care deeply about transforming that data into real human progress.
