Clinical Trials Recruitment
...It's All About Getting Volunteers

One of the most common and direct ways that clinical trials recruitment takes place is through physician-patient recruiting. Also, patient advocacy groups are pretty good about informing their members about ongoing clinical trials that are actively recruiting volunteers. In addition to these, you can also find ads in newspapers and on TV as well as online. A number of reputable online clinical trials registries are available and usually free to use, these include but are not limited to the following sites:

• Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Register
• Centerwatch
• Chinese Clinical Trials Register
• ClinicalTrials.gov
• EmergingMed
• Indian Clinical Trials Registry
• National Cancer Institute

These clinical trials recruitment resources can be divided into two main types - clinical trials lists and clinical trials matching services.

• Clinical Trials Matching Services - these are online services provided by various organizations wherein they use computer-based systems to match patients with studies that they may be eligible to participate in. With a matching service you will want to find out certain information before you use their services such as - possible fees for using the services, source of the lists, registration procedures, confidentiality issues, rank order of studies and the philosophy behind it, and finally, whom to contact and how.
• Clinical Trials Lists - as the name suggests, these are lists that contain the names and descriptions of ongoing clinical trials being conducted for new treatments, devices, etc. They usually contain some very detailed information which you can sift through; contact information is also included if you decide you want to participate, that way you can make the connection with the right person in order to get involved in the study.



Eligibility Requirements

Once a particular study is found the next step in the clinical trials recruitment process is determining your eligibility for enrollment in the trial. One of the goals the study investigators have to achieve is to ensure that they choose study subjects who are alike in key ways and who, at the same time, do not have any health conditions that could possibly skew the study results or even place the individual at risk. When studying a particular therapy, all participants must have the exact disease that the new treatment is targeting so that investigators can accurately measure the effectiveness of the treatment.

Study protocols will usually, actually they must, include a list of eligibility criteria for inclusion in as well as exclusion from the study. These usually include such things as age, gender, history to previous treatments, etc. In particular, being either too sick or having a condition that is very far advanced or having other health conditions may be reasons for being excluded from a study.





One of the chief objects of medicine is to save us from the
natural consequences of our vices and follies
Mencken

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May 21, 2009


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