When it comes to recruiting for a clinical trial, sponsors have one goal above all else: complete clinical trial enrollment. It is not enough for a recruitment partner to meet objectives in terms of scope and deadlines if these things are not producing enough qualified patients who randomize into the trial. Achieving total enrollment requires more than a commitment to delivering on a contract—it requires a commitment to collaboration across disciplines, bringing in the right resources at the right time to adjust the plan, adapt the strategy, and react to trends in real-time.
There is a discreet but fundamental difference between a team dedicated to executing a tactic, and a team dedicated to fully enrolling your trial.
Dedication to a tactic is near-sighted and risky. As a mindset, it prevents teams from seeing the bigger enrollment picture and leads to siloed thinking and reactive solutions. Dedication to enrollment allows for fluid thinking and gives teams more freedom to experiment and push themselves to innovate. As a mindset, it fosters collaboration and proactive, strategic thinking.
When the entire recruitment team (project managers and analysts, site support and media buyers, patient advocacy experts and executive leadership) is focused on one overarching goal—total enrollment—the mindset is one of excitement, learning, possibility and integration. And that energy is infused into the entire program.
Enrollment-Focused Planning
Successful patient recruitment and retention begins with comprehensive strategic planning. It begins with patient insights research focused on enrolling your trial, uncovering motivations and attitudes, fears and concerns—tangible learnings that directly impact enrollment. Strategic planning will incorporate patient advocacy experts to ensure strong resonance with the patient community throughout the study. Media teams will be involved early to identify opportunities for learnings that will impact targeting opportunities. Global experts will perform cultural evaluations to proactively identify countries where simple adaptation and translation may not be sufficient. Site specialists will conduct their own market and site analysis, identifying sites they have worked with before, and markets where they have existing physician relationships that may be valuable for referrals. Planning focused on total enrollment requires collaboration and a mindset that puts achieving enrollment above all else.
Enrollment-Focused Reporting
Real-time analytics are essential to achieving enrollment, visualizing trends as early as possible, enabling every team to understand how to improve and maximize enrollment. Analysts are empowered to troubleshoot obstacles to total enrollment—contacting site specialists to help tier referrals and media teams to adjust market spending. Reporting can and should influence which creative messages are used in outreach based on what is successful, and can inform when a sponsor can safely close enrollment.
Acknowledging and prioritizing the interconnectedness of recruitment campaign tactics leads to a better patient experience, a better site experience, and supports the overarching goal of compete trial enrollment. Successful recruitment partners must be well-rounded enough to bring the right resources to bear at the right time, continually and relentlessly optimizing their plan from the first patient/first visit to the last randomization and study completion.
