CTTI Article in Contemporary Clinical Trials Outlines Framework for Successful Trial Recruitment

A CTTI article outlining a framework for successful clinical trial recruitment planning was recently published in Contemporary Clinical Trials.

While patient recruitment is widely recognized as a key determinant of success for clinical trials, a substantial number of trials still fail to reach their recruitment goals. To address this issue, CTTI convened a project team to examine the challenges and develop actionable, evidence-based recommendations for improving recruitment planning.

These recommendations propose an upstream approach to recruitment planning, focusing on factors that affect recruitment earlier in clinical trial development. The recommendations focus on three essential areas in particular:

• Trial design and protocol development: Identifying all stakeholders, ensuring the relevance of the scientific question, limiting complexity, having realistic eligibility criteria, and optimizing data collection.
• Trial feasibility and site selection: Conducting evidence-based feasibility analysis, having realistic metrics and milestones, developing an adequate budget and resources, ensuring appropriate site selection, and engaging in suitable performance monitoring.
• Communication planning: Identifying where participants seek treatment, developing and testing tailored messages, developing creative material and selecting appropriate delivery channels, having a realistic budget, monitoring and evaluating process and performance, and embedding recruitment intervention studies and sharing results.

CTTI also developed resources to help facilitate adoption of the recommendations, including methods for identifying stakeholders and considerations for patient-reported outcomes. Together, the recommendations and tools are designed to guide efforts in clinical trial recruitment planning and identify areas for continual improvement.