MediciGlobal

1. Avoid “watchful waiting.” All too often recruitment is seen as an expense rather than an investment to save money in the long run.

Companies may not realize that they will save more money by proactively implementing patient recruitment-retention programs than by “watchful waiting.” Chancing fate when on average 80% of clinical trials miss their timelines is not wise. It results in sunk costs that cannot be recovered.

2. Use forecasts and projections to set realistic budgets to achieve accelerated timelines.

When recruitment budgets are set arbitrarily or too low, delays are encountered and the costs are greater. Don’t set up to fail from the start with unrealistic timelines and budget!

3. When the right advertising recruitment message accounts for ~30% of the response, getting the messages right from the “start” speeds up recruitment and saves costs.

Market research plays an important role of validating assumptions and key decisions before they are made. Online patient surveys allow this to be achieved simply, fast and at low cost. Conducting these at the start avoids costly mistakes and delays.

4. Reduce start-up time to allow sites more time to recruit patients.

On a global study, accelerating the launch of a patient recruitment program by ~4 weeks per country, means that a study involving 20 countries results in 40-80 weeks of additional patient recruitment time—improving the likelihood of recruitment success. MediciGlobal’s proprietary system called ADapt localizes recruitment materials by country/culture, and rapidly deploys them to ethics, streamlining the process, and saving time and money.

5. Quickly weed out non-performing sites using real time performance data.

At least one third of study sites will fail to perform. Weeding out sites within 4 weeks of launch, minimizes money wasted on non-performing sites. When recruitment budgets are limited and time is of the essence, sites that actively recruit are those to be supported.

6. Make study sites accountable for locally placed advertising.

Most sponsors include a standard advertising budget for each study site, yet few sponsors make sites accountable for tracking ad response and reporting metrics. MediciGlobal provides oversight and management of this process, lending their media buying expertise to assist study sites in placing cost effective advertising.

7. Use low cost – high impact communications channels; (like the Internet) to deliver health information to patients, consumers and health care professionals.

When budgets are limited, use lower cost media options before more expensive media ie. radio, print and television in some countries .

8.Proactively manage retention—don’t wait for patients to drop from the study before taking action.

Look at retention like an insurance policy. Initiating a retention program at study start protects sponsors’ investment and the statistical power of the data. Every time a patient drops from the study the value of the remaining participants increase. A sponsor who recently invested in a retention program showed that the program retained over 650 patients, saving an investment of $7 million that would have been otherwise lost.

9. Put your money where the patient recruitment results are.

Burdensome protocols, consenting patients, accurate case report forms, and adhering to timelines are tasks conducted by study coordinators. So increasing Investigator study grants for ailing studies is not the answer when study workload is carried by study coordinators. Consider a performance based program that rewards coordinators for achieving study objectives, quality of data, patient care and responsiveness to queries.

10. Minimize clinical team turnover.
Loss of project leadership can cause ~8 weeks delay and result in increase study costs.