Recruitment of clinical trial participants continues to be a major challenge, in spite of widespread investment and innovations. Recruitment delays and shortfalls increase study timelines and increase costs in an environment where everyone is trying to do more with fewer resources.
“As part of feasibility, the more data a site can share, the better,” notes Ashley Moultrie, CCRP, Associate Director, Research Inclusion and Representation, at Syneos Health. Moultrie explains that to support recruitment, it is important to differentiate between patient outreach and engagement. Outreach is specific to a particular trial, aimed at improving recruitment over the short term. Engagement is trial agnostic, aimed at raising awareness and education around clinical trials, and helping patients make fully informed decisions. Both are necessary, but they are not interchangeable.
“The extent of outreach and engagement depends on the bandwidth and size of the organization,” adds Moultrie. “There is no single solution for every target population. It’s important to allow space and flexibility. Even within a region, we must be intentional about using resources, aiming to get closer to precision recruiting. A study participant’s first interaction should always be with another person. Artificial intelligence (AI) will be very useful, but will not replace human-to-human interactions. Enrollment can be an intense and even overwhelming process that must be grounded in trust.”
“The landscape for recruitment providers has expanded rapidly over the last 18 months,” says Elisa Cascade, MBA, FACRP, Chief Growth Officer at TrialScreen. “Five years ago, the standard approach to recruitment was to use creative advertising agencies to create patient-facing materials with institutional review board approval and use these for centralized campaigns. Websites with tailored landing pagers and a pre-screening function were the standard. Over the past three years, there has been a shift toward use of technology. There are now companies using AI throughout the workflow, including finding patients in electronic medical records and matching them with studies.”
Mastering Patient Recruitment in Today’s Clinical Research Landscape
Join Elisa and Ashley at ACRP 2026 [April 24-27; Orlando, Fla.] as they share overview of sponsor and contract research organization expectations, the resources they provide, and how sites can align with them. View complete schedule.
“AI is also supporting sharing information with patients and caregivers in plain language at scale,” says Cascade. “More traditional vendors continue to provide information on a study-by-study basis, but with technology, it is now possible to enable condition specific searches. These enable patients to identify all available studies and choose to pre-screen and request referral for multiple studies. This is particularly helpful for patients who are not eligible for their initial study choice.”
“Patient segmentation is also a promising approach as a framework for digital outreach to potential clinical trial participants,” Cascade adds. “Segmentation can help identify the best locations, channels, and messages for finding patients who seek information about trials, or about their condition and its treatments, as an entry point to introducing clinical research as a care option.”
Edited by Jill Dawson
