Title: E-recruitment of patients for clinical trials

Authors: Alan D. Smith, Dean R. Manna

Addresses: Department of Management and Marketing, Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA 15219-3099, USA. ' Department of Management and Marketing, Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA 15219-3099, USA

Abstract: Patient recruitment has long been a critical bottleneck in the clinical trials process. Current methods of media-driven recruitment efforts often fail to identify adequate patient numbers in a timely manner and cannot scale to meet the growing needs of pharmaceutical companies. The internet, on the other hand, is providing the opportunity to enhance patient recruitment. E-recruiting is proving to be a useful tool in recruiting study participants. It leverages the power of the internet to enrol qualified candidates for clinical trials in a more timely and efficient manner than traditional advertising. E-recruitment is a mass communication medium through which its ability to narrowcast can identify highly defined patient populations. The screening technology made available by health technology companies is a much smarter way to find qualified patients for clinical trials. In the end, web-based recruiting will prove to be a more efficient and cost-effective means of obtaining clinical study participants than traditional advertising methods.

Keywords: clinical trials; e-recruitment; internet; narrow-casting; online screening; pharmaceutical industry; technical R&D; research and development; web-based recruiting; patient recruitment; electronic recruitment; clinical studies; e-healthcare; electronic healthcare.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEH.2005.006688

International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, 2005 Vol.1 No.4, pp.413 - 426

Published online: 01 Apr 2005 *

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