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Recruitment rate for clinical trials is calculated by multiplying the number of sites and randomized patients per site by the number of months of recruitment time. This number can also be reverse-engineered, starting with the number of randomized patients a trial needs.

Alexis Smith had eczema as an infant, but had lived a mostly itch-free childhood until hitting puberty at 12. That's when her symptoms came back.

Crohn's disease is painful because of inflammation in the digestive tract leads to symptoms such as abdominal cramping, severe diarrhea, and rectal bleeding. Some people with Crohn's also experience joint pain, which can occur alongside digestive flares. Joint swelling, or arthritis, is the most common complication of Crohn's disease that takes place outside of the digestive tract. 

If you've heard any statistics around clinical trial recruitment, it's most likely this one: approximately 80% of clinical trials are delayed or closed because of problems with recruitment. Additional troubling statistics include:

As medications become more targeted and sophisticated, the growing complexity of clinical trial protocols is making it more difficult than ever to find the perfect patients for your trials. That’s why a thoughtful and strategic patient recruitment strategy is key.  

While approximately 15 to 20 percent of people 65+ have Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), it can be difficult to identify, and difficult to determine if it is related to Alzheimer’s disease. MCI does not always lead to dementia, but people with MCI are four times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than those without it — so it’s important to treat this condition ...

Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder that can involve several different kinds of uncontrolled movements. Some are caused by the disease, such as tremor and gait freezing, while dyskinesia – uncontrolled jerking or twisting movement – is caused by long-term levodopa use.

Today, 70% of the 18 million adults in the U.S. experience moderate-to-severe symptoms. Nearly half of people with eczema report that they "often" or "always" feel frustrated by their disease. One-third report that they spend up to three hours per day treating their disease. 

The best clinical trial recruitment strategies start by considering the patient perspective. From there, it helps to get creative. A reliable clinical trial patient recruitment plan incorporates a range of outreach methods designed to reach patients quickly and efficiently while providing them with the information they need to take the next step. 

A few years ago, we wrote a blog series for ACRP in which we focused on patient centricity in clinical trial design, recruitment, and execution. Over the next few months, we’ll be taking a second look at those blog posts, sharing updated versions on our own blog. Here’s an update to the first in that series.