Invert To Convert: Rethinking Patient Recruitment And Enrollment Strategies

By Mark Summers, President, WCG Patient Engagement Services

Despite all the advances in science, medicine and technology, clinical trials are stuck in a rut: Most have trouble meeting enrollment targets. It’s an analog problem in a digital world.

You could find hundreds, maybe thousands, of reasons why a specific study is slow to enroll, but 90 to 95 percent of those reasons come down to one or both of the following two root causes:

Lack of Potential Participants:

The site doesn’t have an adequate pool of patients from which to draw. This “top of the funnel” problem is where most sponsors and CROs focus their efforts.

Lack of Site Resources:

The site lacks the resources to handle all the referrals it receives. Thus, many patient referrals remain unprocessed or are processed incorrectly. It may have access to a robust pool of patients but fail to convert them into enrollees.

Overall, the landscape of patient recruitment and enrollment have become highly specialized and data-driven. They demand a specialized, data-driven approach that nurtures potential participants and delivers bottom-line results, quickly and within budget. Read how an Enrollment Assistant can reduce the site’s workload, accelerate enrollment and make the entire recruitment process more efficient.