Medical research is moving faster than ever, and while this is exciting news for patients waiting for new and better treatments, it also highlights the bottlenecks that are slowing the process down. One such bottleneck is clinical trial patient recruitment; a third of all delays for Phase III studies are caused by difficulties finding patients to take part. And while it’s estimated that recruitment costs make up 40% of all trial expenditures, 80% of studies fail to meet their enrollment deadlines. These delays are costly, too – for many sponsors, every month delayed can cost an additional $1 million.
With the high stakes for both patients and the bottom line, it’s important to get clinical trial recruitment right. There are many companies that specialize in just this – they’ll research your target patients, write ads, conduct outreach, prescreen patients, and connect them with sites. The perfect recruitment company depends on what’s being studied and what type of support is needed. Below, we share how to know if a clinical trial is the right fit for your trial, what to look for in a patient recruitment company, and how to measure what matters. We then outline 20 clinical trial patient recruitment companies that can drive your research forward.
Choosing the right clinical trial patient recruitment company is a critical decision that can significantly influence the success of your study. Here are some key considerations to help you make an informed choice:
Experience and expertise: Start by assessing the company’s experience in your study’s therapeutic area. A recruitment partner with a proven track record in your field, whether it’s oncology, rare diseases, or another specialty, will be more attuned to the unique challenges of finding suitable participants. Their expertise should extend to broader categories such as precision medicine, decentralized trials, or global multi-site studies, depending on your trial’s specific needs.
Strategic approach: Evaluate the company’s recruitment methods. Do they rely on traditional strategies like working with physicians and clinical sites, or do they leverage digital tools such as social media and online patient communities? The ideal company should offer a strategic mix that aligns with your target demographic, whether that means reaching tech-savvy younger populations through digital channels or connecting with older or rural participants through more traditional methods.
Level of support: Consider the extent of support the company provides throughout the trial. Some companies offer comprehensive, end-to-end services, including initial patient outreach, prescreening, and ongoing engagement, while others focus solely on the recruitment phase. For instance, some companies, like Sano, offer innovative features such as virtual waiting rooms, which keep potential participants engaged and ready to join when needed, along with integrated genetic testing services that help match the right patients to the right trials. This holistic approach can significantly improve both recruitment efficiency and overall trial success.
Ethical standards and compliance: The ethical considerations in patient recruitment are paramount. Ensure the company adheres to strict ethical standards, including patient privacy, informed consent, and transparent communication. Their compliance with regulatory requirements should be non-negotiable, reflecting a strong track record of maintaining ethical standards in previous trials.
Adaptability and flexibility: Trials often face unexpected challenges, such as slower-than-anticipated recruitment or changes in trial design. The right company should demonstrate adaptability, with the ability to pivot strategies quickly in response to changing circumstances. Flexibility in their approach can prevent delays and keep your trial on track.
Success rates and metrics: Investigate the company’s past performance, particularly in meeting enrollment deadlines and retaining participants. High success rates in similar trials indicate that the company has fine-tuned its processes. Additionally, look for a partner who actively tracks and optimizes key metrics such as cost per participant, time to enroll participants, and participant diversity.
Communication and long-term collaboration: Finally, consider the company’s communication style and potential for a long-term partnership. Effective communication ensures that both parties are aligned and can work together seamlessly. A company that views your relationship as a partnership is more likely to invest in understanding your broader goals and working closely with you to achieve them, especially if you have multiple trials planned.
By carefully evaluating these factors, you can choose a patient recruitment company that aligns with your trial’s goals, maximizes efficiency, and contributes to the overall success of your research.
One of the most critical factors when selecting a clinical trial patient recruitment partner is understanding how they measure success and how those metrics align with your trial’s goals. Different companies may prioritize various aspects of recruitment, and it’s crucial to ensure that their definition of success matches your needs.
Make sure they measure what matters
When speaking with potential recruitment partners, ask them about the key metrics they use to evaluate their recruitment channels. For example, how do they measure cost per participant? This metric is essential for determining how efficiently resources are being used. A recruitment company that closely tracks and optimizes cost per participant can help you allocate your budget more effectively, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to meeting your enrollment targets.
Another important metric is time to enroll participants. Inquire about how the company monitors the speed of enrollment and what benchmarks they use to define success. Faster enrollment can keep your trial on track, but it’s also important to understand if they have strategies to maintain quality and ensure that participants are well-suited to the study. A company that emphasizes both speed and quality in enrollment is likely to deliver better long-term results.
Conversion rates and response rates are also key indicators of a recruitment company’s effectiveness. Ask them how they assess the performance of different channels in terms of engaging potential participants and converting that interest into actual enrollments. High response and conversion rates suggest that the company is effective at both capturing attention and facilitating the enrollment process. However, it’s also worth discussing how they handle channels that underperform—do they have strategies to refine their approach if a particular channel isn’t delivering?
Finally, discuss participant diversity and representation with potential partners. How do they ensure that their recruitment efforts reach a broad and representative participant pool? A company that actively tracks and optimizes for demographic representation, geographic diversity, and clinical characteristics is more likely to deliver a cohort that reflects the broader population, enhancing the external validity of your trial’s findings.
By understanding how different recruitment companies measure success and aligning these metrics with your trial’s specific needs, you can choose a partner that not only meets your enrollment goals but also contributes to the overall success of your research. Make sure to ask detailed questions and review case studies to see how they’ve applied these metrics in previous trials, and how they plan to apply them to yours. If you’d like to learn more about how to measure success in patient recruitment, download our whitepaper.
Now, here are 20 clinical trial patient recruitment companies that can drive your research forward.
Ninety percent of trials require the original timeline to be doubled to meet enrollment goals, but with a strong recruitment strategy, finding the right participants doesn’t have to be difficult. The companies listed above offer a variety of services, including digital patient engagement, automated platforms, community-based recruitment, decentralized clinical trial tools, and genetic testing. Selecting the right partner to recruit patients to take part in your trials is the first step to successful trial execution that avoids delays and costs associated with recruitment challenges.
Are you working on a registry, natural history study, or clinical trial with a genetic component? Sano’s platform combines genetic testing, participant recruitment, and patient engagement in one place to streamline your operations, and can help precision medicine developers run their research up to 10 times faster, at a fraction of the cost.