5 Optimal Strategies to Successful Clinical Trial Enrollment

One of the main challenges in clinical trials is the lack of people participating in them. If you are part of a clinical research organization, or a sponsor, you know why a CRO is working double time to recruit patients to become subjects of clinical studies and sponsors are spending a large amount of money to get patients to enroll.

Since the number of enrollees has an effect on the budget as well as the duration of a clinical trial, focusing on patient recruitment is important.

Here are some strategies to successful clinical trial enrollment:

1. Reach out to potential enrollees and provide sufficient and useful information

One of the reasons behind poor enrollee turnout is a lack of information being sent out. Consequently, quite a number of potential participants are not aware of their clinical trial options. Moreover, failure to disseminate enough information and make patients understand the importance and benefits of being a part of clinical studies, potential enrollees are not encouraged to join.

By letting potential enrollees know their options and correcting the misconception by providing right information, more patients will be willing to enroll. It is best to focus on the content of newsletters you send out as well as your website.

2. Know how to take care of your clinical research sites

Many hospital institutions which agree to be clinical research sites do not have enough funds to operate clinical research departments and often rely on sponsored researches. With this in mind, a sponsor or CRO should be prepared to financially support its clinical studies, such as providing enough compensation for study startups, screenings and patient recruitment. Participating sites do a lot of work on top enrolling patients, including follow-ups and data entries that warrant ample compensation. Apart from these, it’s imperative to acknowledge that there are no similar sites. This means that each one has different concerns and challenges. It’s important to address their issues and communicate with the research team as needed to resolve whatever problems are there.

3. Share your ideas with the sites

If you have bright ideas that can contribute to success of your clinical trial, convey them to your sites. A CRO should be open to collaboration with them, in terms of executing your goals. Build a relationship with your clinical sites, conduct surveys and get feedback. Be prepared to deal with tons of emails and teleconferences to discuss important issues related to the study. Remember that they might be working with other sponsors and building a good relationship with them gives your trial leverage over others.

4. Work on meeting your enrollment goals

If you have sufficient number of patient enrollees and potential problems are minimized or addressed properly, your clinical trial is more likely to succeed. While setting enrollment goals is standard, meeting them can be a hurdle. However, if you are able to achieve this, you are looking at a favorable outcome. Turn this into reality by ensuring people involved are aware of these goals. Also, offer bonuses for goals met.

5. Engage clinical trial center participants

Share your achievements in terms of clinical trial enrollment as well as the strategies you used with other members of your organization. Doing so will not only engage other members and interested parties, but also, will motivate them to come up with other methods to increase enrollee turnout.

By applying optimal enrollment strategies, you can meet your desired goals on time and with lesser costs.

The National Institute of Clinical Research is an SMO/CRO with offices and labs in the following cities and states: New Jersey, North Carolina, Austin, San Diego, San Francisco, Bakersfield 93309, Fountain Valley 92708, Garden Grove 92840, Hacienda Heights 91745, Huntington Beach 92648, Las Vegas 89106, Long Beach 90806, Los Angeles 90048, Ontario 91762, Rosemead 91770, San Antonio 78207, Santa Ana 92704, Upland 91786, and Westminster 92683.