New media use rising in subject recruitment

E-mail and text-message visit reminders are among the newer subject-retention tactics being practiced by trial managers. But little effort is devoted to retention, says Cutting Edge Research.

Retention strategies were used by only half of survey respondents, thought the contract researcher subset of responders say they use them in 67% of cases. Most popular strategies are telephone call reminders, treatment follow-up by phone, transportation assistance and support documentation. 

Among other key findings is the importance of site and investigator evaluations in subject recruitment. Some 95 percent of respondents say they conduct such evaluations, but sponsors took the lead in only six percent of the cases. Sponsors need to also set a subject recruitment budget--11 percent of participating companies say they budgeted no funds for recruitment.

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