Patient recruitment

Patient recruitment includes a variety of services—typically performed by a Patient Recruitment Service Provider—to increase enrollment into clinical trials. Presently, the patient recruitment industry is claimed to total $19 billion per year.The discipline of patient recruitment was formed over three decades ago in the U.S. to meet the challenge of successful on-time enrollment. It has evolved into a field that includes feasibility modeling and analysis; country selection; site selection, training and support; metrics and evaluation; marketing communications, media; and public relations. The patient recruitment sector has experienced rapid growth in recent years, particularly in response to increasing number of global clinical trials.The goal of patient recruitment is to raise awareness of clinical trial opportunities and to encourage enrollment. Services are contracted for by pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, medical device companies, contract research organizations (CROs), or a medical research site. Services include: