5 strategies for biopharma to optimise patient recruitment in clinical trials

Patient recruitment remains a significant challenge for biopharma companies, often leading to delays and increased costs in clinical trials. Traditional recruitment methods can be time-consuming and inefficient, creating a burden on research sites and hindering the ability to meet enrolment goals.

To address these gaps, biopharma companies must adopt a more strategic approach by collaborating with specialised recruitment and technology vendors. Here are five key strategies to optimise patient recruitment in your clinical trials.

(1) Engage specialised recruitment vendors to rapidly reach the right patients.

When choosing your recruitment vendors for specific trials, consider (1) if they are specialised in engaging patients in the specific therapeutic areas you’re working in, and (2) if they are specialised in engaging diverse patient groups. Vendors who routinely reach patients in a certain therapeutic area are likely to have in-depth knowledge about:

• Where to reach those patients online;
• What messaging and tone is most appropriate for those patients and sensitive to their experiences and needs;
• What education is most helpful to those patients in order for them to decide to participate in a trial.

Additionally, vendors who specialise in reaching diverse populations can fill in any gaps in the site-sourced patient population. Because sites are recruiting local patients who can travel to that site, their outreach is limited to a smaller geographical region. However, vendors reaching patients online for all of your sites can target a wider range of communities to ensure the relevant patient population is also relevant to your diversity goals.

(2) Ensure your recruitment vendors have pre-screening processes designed to send high-quality referrals to your sites.

Choose recruitment vendors skilled in online patient recruitment. One key way to reduce burden for your sites is to connect them to vendors who can strategically refer high-quality patients who have already been pre-screened. So, once these referrals reach the relevant site teams, they have fewer final pre-screening tasks to complete before moving those patients to informed consent and screening. Because those patients have already been marked as eligible candidates, it’s also less likely that sites will conduct visits with referrals who aren’t eligible for screening, which reduces overall workload. Consider:

• Are your vendors educating patients about clinical trials so they know what to anticipate?
• Are your vendors moving those patients through an easy-to-understand questionnaire that appropriately pre-screens them for your specific trial needs?
• Do they streamline the patient from initial outreach to a direct connection with a site?

(3) Put the right technology in place to integrate the vendor referral pipeline with site platforms, speeding up recruitment.

If your sites on a specific trial are receiving a high volume of patient referrals through many separate portals, site burden increases even if those candidates are strong. Sites have to aggregate all of the patient information (accurately) in their databases, all while trying to conduct timely follow-ups. They can miss out on opportunities to engage patients when they’re most interested in participating, and they risk overlooking patients whose information gets lost between portals.

Work with a technology vendor to set up an open API that connects referral vendors with site pre-screening platforms – this enables referral patient data to seamlessly integrate into systems where sites manage their databases. With this setup, sites can:

• Instantly pick up pre-screening and screening where referral vendors have left off, without the extra work of transcribing patient information into their site database;
• Quickly maintain patient engagement by reviewing the referral information provided and following up with those patients while interest in participating is high.

(4) Track and analyse recruitment progress to course correct early during recruitment.

Make sure the technology you use gives you the ability to track recruitment insights across your referral partners and your participating sites. The sponsor enrolment platform you choose to work on can come equipped with reporting insights that provide actionable data.

• For example, can you see if sufficient referrals from your recruitment vendor are reaching informed consent? If not, this is an opportunity to adjust your strategy with that partner to ensure high-quality referrals.
• Another example: Are your sites actioning referrals in a timely manner? If not, this is an opportunity to revisit pre-screening expectations and best practices.

To gain these insights, it’s important that the platform you use is integrated with your site teams on a certain trial. The pre-screening information they input about each patient (from referral vendors, as well as from their own recruitment campaigns) determines the depth of recruitment insights you’re able to analyse. Ideally, the connectedness of your platforms allows sites to securely share that data with you automatically.

(5) Equip your sites with management tools to improve workflows.

It’s a game-changer for recruitment efficiency when your sites can instantly process referrals thanks to integrated technology. Ensure they don’t lose momentum after that with screening, enrolment, and source data capture. The technology platform you recommend (or provide) for your sites should do more than smoothly integrate with recruitment vendors.

Ideally, the platform also equips them with tools to efficiently manage visits and accurately capture source data throughout the trial. Not only does this help keep recruitment, enrolment, and overall trial timelines on track, but this can accelerate those timelines to cut down on big-picture costs. It also enhances the trial experience for each patient. Not only are they expertly engaged for and recruited quickly to the trial that matches their needs, but they are efficiently moved through pre- and post-enrolment visits all the way through to trial completion.

When looking at technology support for your sites from the recruitment through post-enrolment phases, consider tools such as:

• Visit schedules with built-in visit window tolerances to quickly schedule visits per protocol;
• Digital checklists to confirm tasks are completed per protocol during every visit;
• Connected calendars to prevent booking errors, missed visits, and delays in patient care;
• eSource to speed up and improve the accuracy of source data capture;
• Financial management capabilities to automate processes around budgeting and invoicing, freeing up time for better patient care.

With strategic technology implementation, you can start optimising patient recruitment in all of your clinical trials.
To revisit, these tactics maximise return on your recruitment spend, ensure recruitment workflows are streamlined at your sites, and enhance the patient participation experience from start to finish:

1. Engage specialised recruitment vendors to rapidly reach the right patients;
2. Ensure your recruitment vendors have pre-screening processes designed to send high-quality referrals to your sites;
3. Put the right technology in place to integrate the vendor referral pipeline with site platforms, speeding up recruitment;
4. Track and analyse recruitment progress to course correct early during recruitment.
5. Equip your sites with management tools to improve workflows.

With powerful technology that connects you with your sites, you can optimise patient recruitment across your portfolio.