International Patient Recruitment and Retention Conference Identifies Key Industry Issues

Liz Moench, President and CEO of MediciGlobal chaired a highly successful Patient Recruitment and Retention conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA, March 18, 2009—Liz Moench, President and CEO of MediciGlobal, a specialty patient recruitment and retention firm for adult and pediatric clinical trials, chaired a highly successful Patient Recruitment and Retention conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands February 18-19, 2009 for the Allan Lloyds Group.

The international conference attracted high level executives from leading international biopharmaceutical firms. The conference focused on issues undermining successful patient recruitment, case studies, key learnings and different strategies in different populations and countries. Several themes emerged.

While Conducting Feasibility is Essential its Definition is not Clearly Defined: Site feasibility and recruitment planning (market research) are important to recruitment success. However, there were different views about what “feasibility” and “market research” actually constitutes—what data and information was essential for patient recruitment in particular, beyond site assessment.

Site Selection and Support is Essential: In a number of countries there is a decline in the number of study sites, and a market saturation of clinical trials. Site assessment is critical since so many sites over promise and under deliver.

Recognizing Site Staff is Important: Study coordinators appreciate it when study sponsors tangibly recognize their performance. In an environment where sponsors are competing with other studies for study coordinators’ time, showing recognition for their work was considered key to sustaining recruitment/study performance.

Recruitment Strategies Vary by Country: While patient recruitment in Europe is primarily site centric—driven by strong referral networks, a number of other recruitment strategies were discussed: community presentations by doctors to patient groups in Germany, the use of the Internet in France and Belgium, advertising in the Czech Republic, and an overall view that patient advocacy and social marketing were emerging.

The Era for Patient Recruitment is Now: Economic downturn has companies reducing their operational burn rate and ensuring that costly clinical trial delays due to patient enrollment are avoided. With downsizing and merging, Liz Moench, President and CEO of MediciGlobal, pointed out that patient recruitment will grow in importance, as more companies will not seek to chance the risk of watchful-waiting when stats show that 80% of study sites fail to meet their timelines.

Please contact Sam Khalaf Business Development at Allan Lloyds for more information.

About Allan Lloyds:
Allan Lloyds is the world’s leading provider of unrivalled high quality business information, that help organizations of all sizes optimize their people and processes, leading to outstanding professional development and superior business results. Our business intelligence is impeccable, with a growing client base made up of international organisations and fortune 500 companies, all leaders within key market sectors. Allan Lloyds is bringing to the world innovative and viable solutions with a portfolio of different industries, our ability to adapt to change and our foundation of unending quest for perfection has enabled us to become one of the most innovative companies in the information world. But, in the face of constant change and innovation, our core values remain constant; commitment to: Our people, high ethical standards, Quality and treating people with respect.

###

About MediciGlobal
MediciGlobal based in the U.S. and U.K., is a specialty patient recruitment - retention company, developing programmes for clinical trials of all sizes in countries around the globe. MediciGlobal's expertise in patient recruitment and retention ensures that biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies meet their clinical study timelines. MediciGlobal is one of few companies focused solely on patient recruitment and retention for nearly two decades. www.mediciglobal.com

For further information contact:
Lindsey Lewis
+1 484-674-6872
llewis@mediciglobal.com