One highly-effective strategy for patient recruitment is a 4 step process. Firstly, attracting potential patients via an advert – such as on Facebook or YouTube. This could also be based on promoting the trial through, for example, HCP outreach or a community awareness program.

In the second step, the patient visits a trial-specific website for more information and to fill in a pre-screening questionnaire. This helps to filter potential participants based on the trial’s Inclusion/Exclusion criteria.

Thirdly is a follow-up process – often via a phone call – that happens very soon after the screening questionnaire has been submitted. This helps further qualify the person for the trial, and is often best performed by a medically-trained person.

And the fourth step is to book the patient in for the initial visit to the research site – a step which generally sees best results if it can be performed during the follow-up call.