Overcoming Burden In Patient Engagement And Recruitment

Patient engagement and recruitment pose significant challenges, not only for patients but also for clinical trial sites. According to a survey by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, 54% of clinical site staff reported a worsening trend in study volunteer recruitment over the past five years. In the recent Citeline/Clinical Leader webinar, panelists, including Ted Trafford, Director of Business Development at Probity Medical Research, discussed the burdens faced by both sites and patients and explored ways to measure success in alleviating these challenges.

Trafford highlighted the underestimated impact of burden on recruitment, emphasizing that higher site burden correlates with slower recruitment. To quantify the daily challenges faced by site staff, Trafford conducted a survey within Probity's clinical trial consortium, revealing that 75% of patient-facing site staff spend less than half their day with participants. The remaining time is consumed by administrative tasks, data queries, and addressing tech-related issues from sponsors, limiting the time available for actual recruitment efforts. Trafford underscored the urgent need to address this discrepancy, as sites are compensated only for the time spent directly with participants, potentially hindering effective patient recruitment in clinical trials.