PATIENT RECRUITMENT
meet target patient populations where they are in their medical journey builds awareness and trust. One example of this is to address patient pain points directly by distilling the specifics of the study into easy-to-understand information and recruitment materials. This includes what is expected of the participant and how they will be supported. Provide communication access points from the beginning through channels such as an informative website, email address, or toll-free phone number. By establishing transparency and communication upfront, we can address questions before they are asked.
Limited time for strong strategy development A patient recruitment plan begins with strategy and develops from the study protocol, selected country mix and enrolment timelines. Out of these, the protocol that has the most influence is strategy development. With that, two scenarios tend to cause time limitations in its deployment. The first scenario arises when patient recruitment materials and preliminary campaigns are in development at the same time as the protocol finalization, resulting in an accelerated push for strategy and materials development toward the back end of the start-up timeline. The second scenario that limits patient recruitment strategy development time is delayed engagement of the recruitment team. Most often this occurs when the finalization of the protocol takes longer than expected and the study team doesn’t engage with the patient recruitment team until the finalization of the protocol. The difficulty with both these scenarios is that most of the patient recruitment material developed depends upon the finalization of the protocol. Patient recruitment during the pandemic brought these two scenarios to the forefront as timelines were tightened and study teams were required to work closely to finalize protocols and ensure study success. Enrolment success was achieved when the patient recruitment team was engaged at project kick-off, providing ample time to work in collaboration with the study team to develop recruitment strategies. With more collaboration between teams, regardless of whether the patient recruitment group is internal or outsourced, supporting the development and deployment of a strong strategy during protocol finalization will create space for the patient recruitment team to seamlessly
transition to material development once the protocol has been finalized.
Little time to realign strategies A short window in which to deploy a study’s recruitment strategy creates even less time to take a step back and evaluate the performance of campaigns and determine whether strategies need to be realigned. Patient recruitment teams understand what needs to be done to quickly identify the areas that require more support. Despite this agile response, some areas may require time so a more optimized strategy may be developed and deployed. Through collaboration within the study team and strong communication with the study’s sponsor, timelines can be developed to support such efforts. Examples of collaboration include adopting an agile structure within the patient recruitment team – a concept borrowed from software development. Through the implementation of daily briefs or “stand ups”, an environment is created to foster collaboration, provide a high-level overview of the status of study enrolment, and encourage reassessment of strategy. Most importantly, consistent communication and collaboration can proactively identify areas of weakness within a strategy. It also allows for realignment to take place with little to no effect on enrolment timeline. To summarize, these are the top three
takeaways for addressing the challenges above during the COVID-19 pandemic: • Start early: engage patient recruitment teams early and often to develop a strong recruitment strategy as well as an awareness campaign to build trust and address the common challenges regarding strategy and awareness.
• Communicate clearly: establish multiple channels of communication externally for study recruitment and internally to maintain strategy alignment. When channels are established, the patient population feels its concerns are validated and trust will be taken care of throughout the study.
• Be flexible: take a page from the agile approach to software development. Revisit strategies weekly to assess areas that are excelling and areas that require realignment of strategy.
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