1. METHODS OF PATIENT RECRUITMENT
To get appropriate subjects within the specified time frame :
Recruitment strategy
Budget

2. METHODS OF PATIENT RECRUITMENT
1. Investigators database:
 Investigators site chosen because of expertise in particular therapeutic
area
 Investigators generally tend to overestimate the no. of patients he would
be able to enroll as he tend to look for overall diagnosis without
weighing the exclusion criteria.
2. Clinician Referrals:
 For pre study promotions, presentations, meetings and forums are
arranged
 Clinicians are made aware of eligibility criteria and recruitment materials
 Recruitment material- posters, flyers, mail shots, which clinician can
send to subjects
 Material should be approved by IEC and letters should have “Opt –in” or
“Opt- out” option.

3. METHODS OF PATIENT RECRUITMENT
3. Advertisement
 Mass media campaigns – newspaper advertisements, radio or TV
advertisements, press releases, mailings billboards, public
announcements
 All approved by IEC before used
 Advertisements should follow a criteria:
• Should not be misleading
• No claims for safety/ efficacy/ superiority
• No terms as ‘new treatment’ / ‘new drug’ without explaining
that the test article is investigational
• Advertisements should not promise ‘free medical treatment’
when intent is not to charge the subjects

4. METHODS OF PATIENT RECRUITMENT
Key elements of Advertisements:
• Name of the research facility
• Purpose of research and Eligibility criteria(Briefly stated)
• Time commitment
• Contact person for more info
• The word “research”
• If monetary compensation is offered, it must not be presented as an
inducement to participate
4. Community based:
 Recruitment through organizing health camps which will target the
populations having the disease under study
 Speaking at a meeting for disease specific support group would increase
awareness

5. METHODS OF PATIENT RECRUITMENT
5. Web based:
 Companies listing clinical trails on web. centrewatch.com and clinical trails.gov
 Online partnerships with search engines yahoo and Google enable sponsors to
provide lead to subjects
 Web sites are used to post the pre qualifying questionnaire and to pre screen
subjects online through a secure network setup.
6. Call centers:
 They form the first point of contact for a patient in the recruitment process
and health information data is obtained through telephone screen. Data can
be rapidly processed and filtered to spread recruitment to several sites
 Call centers can help by giving first appointment to patient at a convenient
centre
 Limitations- training to operators, language specialists in multinational
studies, confidentiality of data.

6. RECRUITMENT MATRIX
• Recruitment success is to be measured and accountability is designed:
• Accountability includes-
– complete tracking of each point of contact
– pre screeing call
– scheduling of first screening visit
– Recruitment enrollment
– Retention
– linking these actions to referral source

7. RECRUITMENT FUNNEL
 Prior to starting recruitment campaign, an investigators needs to project how many
patients he would need in order to get ‘n’ no. of patients for screening and what
percentage of that the would ultimately be able to enroll for a particular study
• Patients identified 1000
• End of prescreening 400
• End of screening(incl/exl) 250
• Randomized 150
• Qualified/ evaluable 100
 From previous studies:
 Average only 1 in 20 patients who responds to recruitment promotion ever
complete the study and 1 out of 5 who respond ever show up for initial creening
 Recruitment funnel is the basis of setting up budget for the trial