Today, patient recruitment remains one of the most challenging and time-consuming aspects of conducting clinical trials. More than 80% of clinical trials in the US fail to meet their scheduling targets, largely due to difficulties in recruiting and retaining the right participants. This failure to recruit enough qualified patients not only results in significant delays in the clinical trial recruitment plan but also increases costs for sponsors.
Furthermore, the dropout rates for clinical trials are high, with as many as 30% of patients discontinuing their participation before the study’s conclusion. This creates a ripple effect, leading to missed deadlines, trial delays, and, ultimately, escalating trial costs.
Whether you're a pharmaceutical company conducting a clinical trial or a research institution running a study, having a clear and effective clinical trial recruitment plan is essential. With the advent of new technologies and digital tools, traditional recruitment methods are being rapidly overshadowed by more modern, data-driven approaches.
These digital methods offer greater efficiency, improved targeting, and a broader reach, enabling researchers to engage potential participants who are highly relevant to the trial and its objectives.
In this article, we will explore various cost-effective digital strategies for how to recruit patients for clinical trials.
Why You Should Use Digital Tools for Your Patient Recruitment Strategies
While traditional patient recruitment methods such as word-of-mouth referrals, printed flyers, or local physician networks have been effective for decades, they are not always sufficient in today’s fast-paced world. These methods often fail to target specific patient populations efficiently and are limited in their scope, especially when recruiting for rare diseases or specialized trials. These approaches can also be very time-consuming, with researchers spending hours manually searching for eligible participants or waiting for them to come to trial centers.
Today’s patients are more digitally connected than ever. Many people now prefer to interact with brands and organizations online, and they expect seamless, digital-first experiences. This shift in consumer behavior has made digital patient recruitment solutions more critical than ever before. Digital tools allow you to engage with patients where they spend much of their time – online - while also enabling more precise targeting and greater scalability.
The Power of Digital Tools for Patient Recruitment
Digital recruitment solutions offer several advantages over traditional methods. First, they provide a means to precisely target specific groups of patients who meet the eligibility requirements for a clinical trial. With the help of sophisticated algorithms and machine learning, digital platforms can filter through vast amounts of patient data to identify individuals who are most likely to qualify for a trial, based on criteria such as demographics, medical history, and disease status. This level of precision ensures that the recruitment process is more efficient, reducing the number of ineligible patients who must be screened and improving overall enrollment speed in your clinical trial recruitment plan.
Furthermore, digital tools allow for real-time monitoring and optimization. Patient recruiters can track the effectiveness of their campaigns and make data-driven adjustments to improve performance, ensuring that the trial’s patient recruitment targets are met on time. Unlike traditional methods, which often rely on static outreach, digital strategies can be dynamic and flexible, adapting quickly to changing needs and circumstances.
How to Recruit Patients for Clinical Trials and The Best Digital Patient Recruitment Strategies
What are the best patient recruitment strategies? The best digital patient recruitment strategies often depend on several factors, including the specifics of the study, its goals, and the number of patients needed for enrollment. The disease or condition being researched plays a significant role, as some may require targeting niche populations, while others might focus on broader demographics.
Geographical location can also influence the approach, as certain areas may have more access to digital platforms than others. Additionally, factors like the study timeline, budget, and diversity requirements should be considered to tailor the clinical trial recruitment plan effectively. By understanding these variables, you can choose from the patient recruitment strategies listed below that align with the unique needs of your clinical trial, ensuring a more efficient and targeted recruitment process.
1. Connecting Patients to Trials with Patient Matching Platforms
Patient matching platforms, such as ClinicalTrials.gov, are powerful tools that can help you find patients who are actively seeking clinical trial opportunities. These platforms allow patients to search for trials based on their medical conditions, location, and other criteria. By partnering with these platforms, researchers looking to recruit patients can connect directly with patients who have expressed an interest in participating in clinical trials.
These platforms are particularly valuable when recruiting for specialized trials, as they allow for a more targeted approach. Patients who sign up for these services are typically highly motivated, meaning they are more likely to complete the trial once enrolled. By leveraging patient matching platforms, clinical researchers can significantly increase their chances of finding the right participants quickly and efficiently.
2. Organic Social Media Ads for Clinical Trial Advertising
In an era where social media is a dominant communication tool, leveraging the power of these platforms in your patient recruitment strategies can be an effective addition to your clinical trial recruitment plan. If your organization already has an established online presence on social media, you can take advantage of your existing community or followers to promote your clinical trial. Organic social media posts are a cost-effective way to spread the word about the trial and reach a wider audience.
When using social media for patient recruitment, it is important to ensure that your posts are engaging and informative. Share posts that explain the purpose of the trial, eligibility criteria, and the potential benefits of participation. If you are recruiting for a specific disease or condition, make sure to use relevant hashtags and keywords to improve visibility and reach the right audience. Additionally, responding to questions and engaging with your followers can help build trust and keep potential participants interested in your study.
3. Leveraging Paid Advertising’s Highly Specific Targeting
Paid advertising can be an excellent way to reach a broader audience and drive potential participants to your clinical trial. There are several types of paid ads that researchers looking to recruit patients can use to effectively promote their trials.
The Power of Social Media Ads for Patient Recruitment
Paid social media ads are one of the most powerful tools for patient recruitment today. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer highly advanced targeting options that allow you to reach specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. With social media ads, you can create campaigns that are tailored to your desired patient profile making them essential for any clinical trial recruitment plan.
For example, if you are running a trial for a disease that predominantly affects people over the age of 50, you can target individuals within that age range. Additionally, social media platforms allow for real-time optimization, enabling you to refine your clinical trial ads and make adjustments based on performance metrics.
Social media ads can also be adjusted to promote diversity in clinical trials. If you need to ensure a balanced representation of various patient demographics, paid ads offer the flexibility to target specific groups, such as different age ranges, ethnic backgrounds, or geographical locations.
Learn more about how patient recruitment specialists use social media ads for patient recruitment
Use Display Ads to Target Potential Participants Who are Actively Searching
In addition to social media ads, display ads can be used to target patients who are actively searching for information related to your clinical trial’s disease area. Google Display Ads allow you to place banner ads on relevant health-related websites, forums, or blogs where potential patients are likely to visit.
For example, if you are running a clinical trial for a heart disease study, placing display ads on popular health sites can help you reach patients who are already searching for heart disease-related content.
By using display ads, you can increase visibility for your trial and ensure that you are reaching patients who are actively seeking information about conditions relevant to your study. This makes display ads effective valuable in any clinical trial recruitment plan.
4. Leverage Your Newsletter to Advertise Your Clinical Trial
Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to reach a large number of people with minimal effort. If your company has a newsletter, this can be a great tool to inform your audience about an upcoming or ongoing clinical trial. You can use your newsletter to share key details about the trial, eligibility criteria, and how patients can sign up.
The timing of your email is critical to its success. Studies show that most people are more likely to open emails between 9 AM and 3 PM, so it’s important to send newsletters during these times for maximum open rates.
In addition to timing, the subject line of your email should be compelling enough to grab the recipient’s attention. Given that most people’s inboxes are flooded with emails, the subject line needs to stand out to ensure that your email does not get lost in the shuffle.
5. Collaborating with Patient Advocacy Groups for a Broad Reach
Patient advocacy groups play a key role in supporting patients who are living with specific diseases. By partnering with these groups, organizations looking to recruit patients can tap into an engaged community of individuals who are already invested in their health and care. Patient advocacy groups often have large online communities and newsletters that can be used to spread the word about your clinical trial offering great opportunities for any clinical trial recruitment plan.
These groups are trusted sources of information, and their endorsement can help increase the credibility and visibility of your clinical trial. By sharing trial information through advocacy group channels, you can access a highly relevant and motivated patient population, which increases your chances of recruiting eligible participants.
6. Create a Webpage and Optimize It for Search Engines
Creating a dedicated webpage for your clinical trial is crucial for providing potential participants with detailed information about the study. This webpage should include essential information such as the trial’s purpose, eligibility requirements, and the process for signing up. Additionally, including a clear call-to-action (CTA) on the page will encourage visitors to take the next step and apply for participation.
To ensure your trial’s webpage gets the visibility it needs, it’s important to optimize it for search engines. Use tools like Ahrefs to identify keywords that patients might search for when looking for clinical trials. By including these keywords in the webpage’s content, you can improve its search engine ranking and drive more organic traffic to the page.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is another way to ensure that your trial’s webpage appears at the top of relevant search results. By bidding on important keywords, you can increase the chances that patients will discover your trial while actively searching for disease-specific content.
How Do You Recruit Patients for Clinical Trials While Being Compliant with Clinical Trial Regulation?
Patient recruitment for clinical trials is heavily regulated. These regulations exist to protect patients’ rights and ensure that they are fully informed about the clinical trial and its potential risks and benefits. The need to comply with clinical trial regulations is a critical aspect of any patient recruitment solution.
The Significance of the IRB and EC for Clinical Trial Regulation
In the United States, for example, all advertising materials related to clinical trials must be reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) before being published. In Europe, this responsibility falls to the Ethics Committee (EC). These governing bodies ensure that all promotional materials are ethically sound, provide truthful information, and do not mislead potential participants.
Clinical trial compliance is a complex process, but it is necessary to safeguard both the integrity of the study, and the rights of the patients involved. As a result, all patient recruitment strategies must adhere to these regulations to ensure that the trial runs smoothly and that patient safety is prioritized.
Google Ads for Clinical Trial Advertising (SEM and Display Ads)
Google’s advertising platform has strict rules when it comes to clinical trial advertising. Ads related to clinical trials must clearly explain the study, its purpose, and the eligibility requirements. Additionally, ads cannot imply guaranteed results, such as offering a “cure” for a disease. Ads that make exaggerated claims could be flagged, leading to penalties or even suspension of the ad campaign. As such, it is critical to craft clinical trial recruitment ads that accurately reflect the trial’s goals without overpromising results.
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Clinical Trial Regulation
Meta’s social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram also have strict policies in place for clinical trial advertising. Ads related to health conditions cannot make personal health assumptions about the target audience, such as directly asking “Do you suffer from X disease?”
Additionally, targeting based on sensitive health data is highly regulated. For example, retargeting ads based on previous health-related searches or activity is restricted, as platforms like Facebook aim to protect users’ privacy and ensure that health-related advertising does not overstep boundaries.
Clinical Trial Regulation on Other Platforms
Platforms like YouTube, Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter) have similar regulations and guidelines for clinical trial advertising. It’s important to review each platform’s specific policies to ensure clinical trial compliance. Failure to do so can lead to ads being rejected or campaigns being shut down.
Should You Recruit Patients Yourself or Partner with a Patient Recruitment Specialist?
Recruiting patients for clinical trials can be an overwhelming challenge, especially if you lack experience with the mentioned tools. In general, managing various digital patient recruitment strategies while navigating the complexities of clinical trial regulations can be a daunting task.
Fortunately, today there are companies specializing in exactly this with many years of experience in how to recruit patient in clinical trials in various therapeutic areas in many different geographical areas of the world. Patient recruitment specialists work with patient recruitment daily and have refined their patient recruitment strategies to meet timelines effectively while minimizing dropout rates.
Patient recruitment specialists are experts in handling the recruitment process and ensuring compliance with all relevant clinical trial regulations. Partnering with an experienced patient recruitment specialist can help reduce the burden on your team, increase enrollment rates, accelerate timelines and ensure that your clinical trial recruitment plan stays on track.
Patiro’s Expertise in Supporting Research Studies with Patient Recruitment Solutions
At Patiro, we have extensive experience in recruiting patients for clinical trials and collaborates with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies, assisting them in recruiting eligible patients for clinical trials globally.
Patiro has helped enroll patients in more than 44 countries and covered more than 2,000 diseases, including rare diseases, oncology, CNS, psychiatry, pediatrics, and a lot more.
If you believe Patiro could be the right partner for your clinical trial, schedule a demo today to learn more about how we can help you.
