I’m often asked what’s the best method to use for recruiting patients into clinical trials. And the answer is usually prefaced with ‘it depends’ as each trial will have its own circumstances that need to be addressed.

But if we look at the concept of patient recruitment as a whole, I would say that the best way to recruit patients would be for their primary care physician to share the relevant information with them. Their doctor almost certainly being viewed as a trusted advisor with whom the patient is likely to have something of a relationship.

In reality, this rarely happens, with doctors having little awareness of potential trials their patients could participate in, too little time to research or share the information etc..

Maybe this is a little ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’, but if we could get that aspect right there would be no need for the billion dollar a year patient recruitment industry to exist.