In this article I’m going to tell you about one of the most important ways you can increase your patient recruitment that you can implement right now.

This one change alone can have a dramatic effect on the number of patients that enrol for your trial.

Don’t email consent forms or study information to the patient to read

Unfortunately this is a common practice at many sites, and it’s easy to understand why.

• If a patient reads the trial consent form at home before a screening visit, they have a chance to ask their Doctor about the trial.
• If a patient decides they don’t want to participate after reading the consent form and/or speaking with their Doctor, it’s one less screening visit.
• It’s one less thing the study coordinator has to do at the screening visit.
• Emailing the consent form to patients who might be interested in participating seems like a good time saver, and even in the patient’s best interests.

However, it greatly reduces the likelihood of a patient participating in a trial, and is not actually in the patient’s best interest, as we’ll see below.

Consider the consent form or information document from the patient’s point of view

It’s easy to think that a consent form is a nice, short, simple to read and easy to understand document. Certainly it is compared to many protocols.

But the reality is:

• It’s still a very long document.
• A patient reading it will still likely have questions.
• It focuses a lot on potential negative outcomes like side effects, and goes into detail about all the required visits and procedures.

Imagine if someone sent you an email that was 10 pages long and expected you to read it? And if you did you found that it talked about strange medical procedures or other commitments you didn’t understand, then said there was a chance you could develop nasty side effects, and raised more questions than it answered.

Would you be volunteering to participate?

Here are the scenarios that are more likely to play out:

• You receive the email and start to read the information, before you realise how long the document is. Ten pages! You decide to come back and read it later, but you never quite get around to it.
• Your email inbox is so full these days and you never even see the email, and consequently forget about the trial. When someone calls from the trial you say you’ll look for it and read it, but you don’t quite get round to it.
• You’re interested in the trial, and you actually read about half of the consent form, but the more you read the more questions you have and the more you doubt whether participating in a clinical trial is a good idea after all. With your questions unanswered and you’re still only halfway through the document, it all becomes too hard, and you decide not to participate.
• You read through the consent form, and questions arise. You know you could ask your Doctor, but you don’t have an appointment to see them anytime soon, and you don’t want to pay to see him just to get your questions answered. As you continue to read you also see all the potential side effects, and decide it’s best to not participate.

These are just a handful of the reasons patients who are emailed the consent form do not participate.

Develop a personal relationship with patients

You should instead give patients the consent form in person, when they come to the site for a screening visit.

Because they are at the site, they will actually read the consent form, and you can immediately answer any questions they have.

This is the best scenario for the patient, as they have the opportunity to ask questions about the study. Afterwards, they can also ask questions to their usual Doctor as well.

It will also have a dramatic effect on patient recruitment. Patients will be much more likely to participate if they get to meet study staff, learn about the trial and have their questions answered in a professional and friendly environment.

Patients participate in clinical trials for a variety of reasons, but the relationship between the site staff and the patient has a profound effect on both recruitment and retention.

Providing a friendly and helpful environment at the site for the patient to learn about the trial and read the consent form ensures a personal, friendly and professional start to the relationship, and a much higher recruitment rate.

In this article I’m going to tell you about one of the most important ways you can increase your patient recruitment that you can implement right now.

This one change alone can have a dramatic effect on the number of patients that enrol for your trial.

Don’t email consent forms or study information to the patient to read

Unfortunately this is a common practice at many sites, and it’s easy to understand why.

• If a patient reads the trial consent form at home before a screening visit, they have a chance to ask their Doctor about the trial.
• If a patient decides they don’t want to participate after reading the consent form and/or speaking with their Doctor, it’s one less screening visit.
• It’s one less thing the study coordinator has to do at the screening visit.
• Emailing the consent form to patients who might be interested in participating seems like a good time saver, and even in the patient’s best interests.

However, it greatly reduces the likelihood of a patient participating in a trial, and is not actually in the patient’s best interest, as we’ll see below.

Consider the consent form or information document from the patient’s point of view

It’s easy to think that a consent form is a nice, short, simple to read and easy to understand document. Certainly it is compared to many protocols.

But the reality is:

• It’s still a very long document.
• A patient reading it will still likely have questions.
• It focuses a lot on potential negative outcomes like side effects, and goes into detail about all the required visits and procedures.

Imagine if someone sent you an email that was 10 pages long and expected you to read it? And if you did you found that it talked about strange medical procedures or other commitments you didn’t understand, then said there was a chance you could develop nasty side effects, and raised more questions than it answered.

Would you be volunteering to participate?

Here are the scenarios that are more likely to play out:

• You receive the email and start to read the information, before you realise how long the document is. Ten pages! You decide to come back and read it later, but you never quite get around to it.
• Your email inbox is so full these days and you never even see the email, and consequently forget about the trial. When someone calls from the trial you say you’ll look for it and read it, but you don’t quite get round to it.
• You’re interested in the trial, and you actually read about half of the consent form, but the more you read the more questions you have and the more you doubt whether participating in a clinical trial is a good idea after all. With your questions unanswered and you’re still only halfway through the document, it all becomes too hard, and you decide not to participate.
• You read through the consent form, and questions arise. You know you could ask your Doctor, but you don’t have an appointment to see them anytime soon, and you don’t want to pay to see him just to get your questions answered. As you continue to read you also see all the potential side effects, and decide it’s best to not participate.

These are just a handful of the reasons patients who are emailed the consent form do not participate.

Develop a personal relationship with patients

You should instead give patients the consent form in person, when they come to the site for a screening visit.

Because they are at the site, they will actually read the consent form, and you can immediately answer any questions they have.

This is the best scenario for the patient, as they have the opportunity to ask questions about the study. Afterwards, they can also ask questions to their usual Doctor as well.

It will also have a dramatic effect on patient recruitment. Patients will be much more likely to participate if they get to meet study staff, learn about the trial and have their questions answered in a professional and friendly environment.

Patients participate in clinical trials for a variety of reasons, but the relationship between the site staff and the patient has a profound effect on both recruitment and retention.

Providing a friendly and helpful environment at the site for the patient to learn about the trial and read the consent form ensures a personal, friendly and professional start to the relationship, and a much higher recruitment rate.