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Table 1 Clinical Trials Unit survey on recruitment and retention - routinely used methods (with or without formal evaluation)

From: Interventions to improve recruitment and retention in clinical trials: a survey and workshop to assess current practice and future priorities

Category

Examples (recruitment)

Examples (retention)

Patient contact

Patient information (appropriate design and translation)

Additional contacts (reminders, newsletters, feedback for patients, and websites)

Promotion (newsletters, advertisements, presentations, events, press release, and community sessions)

Patient convenience

 

Flexible appointments

Reducing research burden (shortened assessment scales and online data collection)

Support for recruiters

Presentations and training about recruitment issues to recruiting staff

Presentations and training about retention issues to recruiting staff

Monitoring and systems

Recruitment staff reminders (computer pop ups)

Tracking patients (flagging, contacts for change of address, and collection of multiple contacts)

Use of existing registers (mail shots and screening notes)

Reminders (calendars, alert cards, and ongoing contacts with control or wait list participants)

Reducing burden (randomizing online in real-time, phone number for queries, and simple case report forms)

 

Incentives

Targets (site recruitment targets, feedback, and competition among sites)

Incentives (gifts for sites, co-authorship for good retention, and monetary incentives)

Incentives (gifts for sites, co-authorship for good recruiters, and monetary incentives)

Design

Relevance of study design

Options other than complete withdrawal

Piloting

Patient and public involvement

Changing protocol (widening criteria)

 

Patient and public involvement

Resources

Site resources

 

Additional resources (such as networks)

Human factors

Relationships (face-to-face initiation visit, regular contact with recruitment staff, site champions, and ongoing relationships between trials)

Relationship (support for patient between visits, handwriting envelopes, Christmas/birthday cards, and thanking participants)