Weighing in On Participant Recruitment

In a commentary published in the November issue of Academic Medicine, top recruitment experts at UCSF urge academic medical researchers to embrace new methods for recruiting participants into clinical trials.

The commentary, Improving Participant Recruitment in Clinical and Translational Research, addresses the findings of an Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) report on The Prevalence and Economic Impact of Low-Enrolling Clinical Studies at an Academic Medical Center. Defining “low enrollment” as having zero or one participant, the report found that one third of all studies terminated between 2005 and 2009 at OHSU had low enrollment, costing the institution nearly $1 million annually.

“Unfortunately, the findings of the OHSU study are not unique,” says Nariman Nasser, one of the commentary authors, and director of the UCSF Participant Recruitment Service. The recruitment of research participants is critical to conducting clinical and translational research, and if we cannot recruit adequately, we simply cannot carry out successful clinical research.”

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