Recruiting and Retaining Study Participants in Today's Unemployment Climate – Qualification is Still Key
DIA Global Forum – December 2009
Current unemployment rates are high, which means that more people are looking to earn extra money and have the additional free time necessary to participate in early-phase clinical trials. This new, larger population can often only be accessed as a resource for shorter outpatient studies because longer-duration studies require time commitments that job hunters and those attempting to maintain eligibility for unemployment benefits frequently cannot meet.
While being able to access this larger pool of possible volunteers for outpatient studies may appear to make recruiting for such trials an easier task, it is vital that contract research organizations (CROs), big pharma companies, and other sponsor institutions not lose sight of how important it is to recruit participants who meet the exacting requirements of any given trial and who are also viable for retention purposes. Recruiting and retaining qualified study participants is essential to ensuring the validity and subsequent success of a clinical investigation...Read the full article.