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# Companies Working on Trial Recruitment, Retention
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/companies-working-on-trial-recruitment-retention/
- Published: 2016-01-26T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T02:30:44.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5134557

> With clinical trial patient recruitment continuing to face significant challenges, drug developers are focusing on improving patient recruitment and retention practices, according to a roundtable discussion of drug company senior managers and industry consultants convened by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. Results of that discussion are in the 1/2016 [*R&D Management Report*](http://csdd.tufts.edu/reports/rd%5Fmgmt%5Freport?ref=fdaweb.com) (subscription or purchase required).  
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> The report notes that nearly half of all sites miss their enrollment targets, and some 11% of sites in a given trial fail to enroll a single patient. Also, less than half of all patients screened for clinical trials actually complete them. “These realities limit study conduct success and, if left unchecked, will become even bigger challenges in the future, due to the fact that growth in the number of global clinical trials is increasing overall demand for study volunteers,” the report says. “And as the focus of clinical trials moves to development of stratified and precision medicines, investigative sites will need to recruit volunteers from more narrowly defined, and therefore more limited, sub-populations. Dramatically improving patient recruitment and retention effectiveness, therefore, becomes mission critical.”  
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> The roundtable participants say that drug companies are responding by using “Big Data” to identify and understand patient populations, engaging the “voice of the patient” in trial design, and finding new ways to reach, attract, and keep patients.  
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> The report says that results of a recent Tufts center survey suggest that ample opportunities exist to improve outreach to referring doctors and then engage with them during and after clinical trials. Some 53% of the doctors surveyed said they were somewhat or not at all familiar with clinical trials. And of those who were aware of trials, lack of access and information, rather than a fear of losing patients, explained why they don’t make trial referrals.  
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> An opportunity also exists, the report says, to involve nurses. While many nurses have little experience with clinical trials, three-quarters said they would be more willing to refer patients if they developed a relationship with an investigator. They said the referral process would be improved if they got more feedback from the clinical research group and trial results, and if there were a faster, easier way to make referrals.  
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> A flexible approach to patient recruitment uses data to understand the process as it unfolds, Tufts says, enabling study teams to change or adjust course in response to evolving conditions. Study teams need to be aware of the site timeline, investigator meetings, communication material availability, and the number of patients screened. Social media is growing as a recruitment tool, Tufts says, by providing new pathways between sites and specific population groups.  
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> The report concludes that patient recruitment has fundamentally changed from the traditional approach in which sponsors relied solely on investigators to enroll patients, to a more patient-centric approach in which patients are actively seeking clinical trials. The researchers say they are starting to see hints of the next era of patient recruitment that will be “frictionless.” In such an era, they say, clinical trial designers will be able to access large, comprehensive electronic medical and health records that will let them scan large patient populations, optimize protocol design, and identify potential patients by eligibility criteria.