Patient recruitment
The discipline of patient recruitment was formed over three decades ago in the U.S. to meet the challenge of successful on-time enrollment. It has evolved into a field that includes feasibility modeling and analysis; country selection; site selection, training and support; metrics and evaluation; marketing communications, media; and public relations. The patient recruitment sector has experienced rapid growth in recent years, particularly in response to increasing number of global clinical trials. Technology has impacted the evolution of patient recruitment. Many companies have developed proprietary software to help make processes more efficient, and providers increasingly rely on the Internet not only for advertising and early screening, but also for tasks such as tracking data and measuring site performance. The goal of patient recruitment is to raise awareness of clinical trial opportunities and to encourage enrollment. Services are contracted for by pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, medical device companies, contract research organizations (CROs), or a medical research site. Services include: If a trial is lengthy or if it requires invasive procedures, the greater the need for retention support to help keep patients involved for the entire trial timeline. For those engaged in global clinical studies, particularly lengthy trials with extension studies, the need for patient retention services is significant. A variety of support services that are considered retention specific include: E6-GCP guidelines suggest that an investigator should have adequate resources to demonstrate (e.g., based on retrospective data) a potential for recruiting the required number of suitable subjects within the agreed recruitment period. There are many different recruitment methods, including media (i.e., television, radio and newspaper), physician referrals, press releases, fliers, random mailings, cold calls and the internet. These methods must be selected before study start. Also, some common factors such as-sample size, suitability of the strategy as per study design and overall budgetary constraints must not be ignored.
Origin
Patient recruitment includes a variety of services—typically performed by a Patient Recruitment Service Provider—to increase enrollment into clinical trials. Patient enrollment is the most time-consuming aspect of the clinical trial process.