Clinical Trials: Not Just Technology, Dedicated Personnel Improve Recruitment
We agree with Reynolds that here is an expanding role for innovative
technologies in clinical trial recruitment [1]. In our experience, a
dedicated recruitment co-ordinator is also of central importance.
Over ten years of recruiting healthy volunteers for phase I/IIa
vaccine trials in our UK academic centre, we have combined internet-based
recruitment (www.jenner.ac.uk) and social networking sites
(www.facebook.com/pages/Malaria-Vaccine-Trials), with more traditional
recruitment methods.
However, since appointing a full-time recruitment co-ordinator we
have observed a 427% increase in screening appointments, translating into
a 115% increase in volunteer recruitment (from a mean of 142 per 2-years
from 2000-2008, to 305 per 2-years from 2009-2010; P=0.001, one-sample t
test). This observation contrasts with falling clinical trial recruitment
in the UK reported since the introduction of the EU Clinical Trials
Directive in 2004 [2]. We suggest that effective application of novel
technology to clinical trial recruitment will continue to require
dedicated personnel.
References:
1. Reynolds, T., Clinical trials: can technology solve the problem of
low recruitment? BMJ, 2011. 342: p. d3662.
2. Smyth, R.L., Regulation and governance of clinical research in the
UK. BMJ, 2011. 342: p. d238.
Competing interests:
AVSH is a named inventor on vaccine candidates and immunisation approaches under clinical assessment at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine.
22 July 2011
Christopher J.A. Duncan
Clinical Research Fellow
Laura Dinsmore, Adrian V.S. Hill
Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford
Rapid Response:
Clinical Trials: Not Just Technology, Dedicated Personnel Improve Recruitment
We agree with Reynolds that here is an expanding role for innovative
technologies in clinical trial recruitment [1]. In our experience, a
dedicated recruitment co-ordinator is also of central importance.
Over ten years of recruiting healthy volunteers for phase I/IIa
vaccine trials in our UK academic centre, we have combined internet-based
recruitment (www.jenner.ac.uk) and social networking sites
(www.facebook.com/pages/Malaria-Vaccine-Trials), with more traditional
recruitment methods.
However, since appointing a full-time recruitment co-ordinator we
have observed a 427% increase in screening appointments, translating into
a 115% increase in volunteer recruitment (from a mean of 142 per 2-years
from 2000-2008, to 305 per 2-years from 2009-2010; P=0.001, one-sample t
test). This observation contrasts with falling clinical trial recruitment
in the UK reported since the introduction of the EU Clinical Trials
Directive in 2004 [2]. We suggest that effective application of novel
technology to clinical trial recruitment will continue to require
dedicated personnel.
References:
1. Reynolds, T., Clinical trials: can technology solve the problem of
low recruitment? BMJ, 2011. 342: p. d3662.
2. Smyth, R.L., Regulation and governance of clinical research in the
UK. BMJ, 2011. 342: p. d238.
Competing interests: AVSH is a named inventor on vaccine candidates and immunisation approaches under clinical assessment at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine.