Report: Specialized Patient Recruitment Firms Bring More Value to a Trial Than Adding Sites

A new report from Industry Standard Research (ISR), Best Practices in Patient Recruitment, shows that sponsors and CROs agree, hiring a specialized patient recruitment firm is a better value than adding more sites to the study. This is, in part, due to specialized recruitment firms having their own database of patients, a highly important attribute in recruiting for a clinical trial.

“Each day a trial goes beyond its intended deadline, the sponsor organization is subject to a loss in sales, and more importantly, patients who would benefit from the medication experience a delay in receiving the new treatment,” explained Kate Hammeke, Vice President of Market Research at ISR. “ISR learned through primary research with key stakeholders that one of the best ways to keep a trial on-time and within budget—which ultimately brings medicines to the patients who need them faster—is to engage a specialized patient recruitment firm. This finding, along with other best practices from sponsors, CROs and sites, is shared in the report, making it a valuable tool for anyone charged with patient recruitment.”

In addition to findings on the value added by engaging a specialized recruitment firm, the report includes key statistics on which entity (sponsor, CRO or site) has the greatest impact on recruitment success, which study characteristics drive patient recruitment success, and the value of various recruitment tactics and the best sources for recruiting patients. Respondents also shared insights into their approach to recruiting for a global trial, country selection factors and challenges encountered in recruiting for global studies.

Both sponsors and CROs offered insight into their experiences working with 18 different specialized patient recruiting firms, including: Academic network (a Stericycle company), Acurian (a PPD company), BKK Worldwide, CAHG Trials, Clariness, Clinical List America, Clinical Site Services, Clinical Trial Media, DAC Patient Recruitment Services, MediciGlobal, MMG, PatientsLikeMe, Patient Recruiters International, Praxis Communications, Resolutions Rapid Enrollment Solutions, Synexus, The Patient Recruiting Agency, and Threewire.

CROs evaluated in the report include: Accell, Accellovance, Accenture, Bioclinica, Bioskin, Celerion, Chiltern (including Theorem), Clinical Research Services (CRS), Clinipace, Clinlogix, Clinsys, Cognizant, Covance, DaVita Clinical Research, DCRI-Duke, Encorium, Eurofins, Eurotrials, Frontage, Hungaro Trial, ICON, Inamed, INC Research, inventive Health Clinical, KCR, Lambda, Medpace, Medsource, NAMSA, Novotech, PAREXEL, Pharm-Olam International, PPD, PRA, Premier Research, ProTrials, QPS, Quintiles, Rho, SanaClis, SGS Life Sciences, Southern Star, SPRI Clinical Trials, Symbio, SynteractHCR, Tata, TKL Research, West Coast Clinical Trials, and Worldwide Clinical Trials.

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