Alternative Fact: Site Identification Is Not Critical To Clinical Trial Efficiency

By Craig Morgan, goBalto

On the surface this may seem to have some validity, as sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs) often lack a transparent, evidence-based strategy for this task. Instead, they frequently rely on archaic paper-based or spreadsheet methods to identify sites across the globe with a reasonable chance of enrolling the contracted number of patients on schedule, and the ability to generate quality data. Moreover, the practice of adding more sites per study than necessary and requiring each site to recruit fewer subjects per site is a standard, although questionable, risk mitigation practice. So how important can site identification be to the efficiency of clinical trials?