Snooker’s Maximum Break of 147 has Lessons for the Process of Patient Recruitment

Continuing with the last vid’s sporting theme, I’m also a big fan of snooker – a cue sports game played on a table bigger than used for pool.

The snooker reference occurred to when I made my 147th video last week – 147 being the maximum break in snooker. (108 points higher than my own highest break).

Aside from being a content or idea generation possibility, the concept of constructing a maximum break in snooker has some parallels for patient recruitment and retention.

At the outset, we can see all the available elements we have to work with, and have a set of guidelines and rules to follow.

We know from past experience that specific actions will lead to specific results. And we should be looking at our next action before we complete our current one.

And underlying it all is that it’s rare for everything to come together perfectly, so we should have contingencies in place for when they don’t.

If Formula 1 can Organize a Grand Prix in Las Vegas Pharma Should be Able to Fix Patient Recruitment

I’m a big Formula 1 fan and thoroughly enjoyed the TV coverage of the Las Vegas Grand Prix over the weekend.

The event hit a bit of a snag in the opening practice session, but overcame the problem within a few hours to continue as previously organized.

The amount of planning and preparation work that went into running a Grand Prix along the Strip and around some of the famous sites has been incredible. (For instance, I was in Vegas in May and the road was being resurfaced then specifically for the race).

The reason I’m mentioning it is that worldwide revenues for Formula 1 were approximately 2.5 billion dollars in 2022.

While 2022 revenues for the global pharma industry were around 1.4 trillion dollars.

Which makes me wonder why our industry still has a major issue with patient recruitment, when a much smaller industry can successfully deliver something so complicated straight off the bat.

My 150th Daily Video – and with so much to Discuss I Intend to Continue

Somewhat surprisingly, this is my 150th video.

Think I’ll say that again – 150th video!

While I did set out with the intention of creating quite a lot of them, I’m not sure I would have been all that certain of achieving quite this many when I started with them 150 days ago.

Over time I’ve settled into a bit of a pattern of creating vids on the subject of patient recruitment and clinical trials on weekdays, with topics such as idea generation or writing tips being covered on the weekends.

When I tell people how many videos I’ve made, a common reaction is to wonder how I’ve managed to find so much to say. (An average of probably 155 words spoken in each one equals around 23,250 words so far).

But given the enormity of the central issue, I’m pretty confident there’s a lot more to be said and I intend to continue saying it.

If Daily Newspapers can Create Quality Content on a Consistent Basis, So Can You

I mentioned in the last vid how I like to read the weekend newspapers.

And I’m always impressed by how much quality content they deliver on a consistent basis.

Which provides me with more inspiration to create my own content ongoing. If a quality newspaper can print at least 100,000 words each and every day, surely I can generate a fair few of my own?

Admittedly, a national newspaper will have multiple journalists, commentators, and features writers working for it, so the responsibility for creation isn’t resting on just one person.

And obviously they have various editors and sub-editors helping out.

But if I ever get to a point where I think I simply don’t have anything more I can say on a particular day, a glance at the newspaper helps redress that way of thinking and encourage me to continue creating content. In the spirit of ‘if they can do it, so can I’.

I Find Reading the Weekend Newspapers can Provide Good Inspiration for Content Ideas

I’m someone who still likes to read a printed newspaper. In particular, I like the Saturday and Sunday editions, the reading of which can often last a few days into the following week.

I also find they can be good sources of content ideas. And not just the pharma or healthcare articles.

For example, this week was King Charles’s 75th birthday – possibly an idea for a piece about experience and patience going hand in hand for achieving goals.

We’ve also had some interesting political news this week, with the return to government of former Prime Minister, David Cameron, in the role of Foreign Secretary.

An interesting connection here might be that when David Cameron was first elected – in 2010 – King Charles was then heir to the throne, with Joe Biden as US Vice President.

Whereas today they both have the top job.

Which could be another idea that might form the basis for a content piece.

Everyone in Clinical Research Should be Interested in Patient Recruitment and Retention

There’s a well-known saying in the world of sales and marketing that essentially everybody who works at a company works in sales. In that the whole organization is built on the premise of selling its products or services to customers, so every employee should be playing a part in making sure that happens effectively.

Which is why I’m always surprised within the clinical trials industry that not everybody who works in it is interested in recruiting and retaining patients.

These are, after all, the lifeblood of the industry – without whom, there would be no treatments needing to be developed.

If everyone in clinical trials adopted a similar attitude to the companies that understand all their employees work in sales, and paid more attention to the issues of getting patients into and successfully completing trials, there would surely be a move in a positive direction toward alleviating the problems we’re all too familiar with.

Gaining Clarity on your Requirements Before Designing your Trial Helps Save Time and Resource

I’ve mentioned before about how many trial protocols feature copied and pasted elements from previous trials, and how this isn’t necessarily the best way to go about designing a new trial.

Another aspect of this approach is when sponsors are looking for outsourcing partners – essentially using the same basic template each time for selecting their CRO, patient recruitment vendor, lab services provider etc.

And again, I’d suggest this isn’t necessarily the best way to go about things, as it could lead to simply setting yourself up to face the same problems you have previously.

Taking a clean piece of paper for understanding and developing your outsourcing strategy at the start of each new project will give you increased clarity on what it is you actually need for successful trial delivery.

Which save you time and resource in such things as protocol amendments and potentially having to replace some of your outsourcing partners.

Each Stakeholder in the Patient Recruitment Process Should Look at What They Could do Better

If you ask the various stakeholders in the patient recruitment process who is most at fault when it comes to the ineffectiveness of how things usually operate, you’ll probably get responses such as sponsors pointing to research sites for not following up the referrals in a timely fashion, sites pointing to CROs for not providing adequate support, patients pointing to sponsors regarding the burden of trial protocols, etc.

In my experience with trials, it’s rarely one major issue that causes the problems. More likely a combination of these and other factors that contribute to bottlenecks and delays at each point.

And, while taking on board what the other stakeholders are saying is obviously worthwhile, I would suggest that maybe looking inwards can also help with developing solutions.

Each stakeholder asking themself what they could do better should result in more effective practices being adopted, and better outcomes for all.

Educational Events can be an Inexpensive Way to Attract Patients for Clinical Trials

Promoting the concept of patient recruitment can be done in a variety of ways – one of which is to host an educational event that provides information about specific conditions and treatments, and/or provides an overview of the participation process.

Organizations like CISCRP, for example, take part in community events to promote the idea of clinical research.

An educational event method that I’ve seen work successfully is where a representative from a research site – in particular, the Principal Investigator – hosts a seminar outlining the latest developments in research in a specific therapy area, then encourages the attendees to apply to take part in a trial.

One such event I was involved with a few years ago attracted over a hundred attendees, with a subsequent uptick in trial participants as a direct result.

Promoting the event can be done through social media and other channels, and can deliver good results without being prohibitively costly.

The Industry Missed a Trick During Covid for Increasing the Public’s Awareness of Clinical Trials

One of the biggest issues facing the recruiting of patients into clinical trials is that of lack of awareness that trials exist.

I think the industry has really missed a trick over the last few years, as throughout 2020 the whole world knew there were clinical trials taking place – for Covid vaccines. Capitalizing on that extreme amount of awareness should have been something we could do to keep up the momentum and make people aware that there are trials for all manner of diseases and conditions, as well as those related to a global pandemic.

I’m certainly hoping there isn’t another Covid-style event on the horizon. But I’d love to see primary care physicians taking more of a lead to encourage their patients to investigate trials they may qualify for – with doctors obviously being in the position of trusted advisor who should also be best-placed to understand eligibility criteria and be able to explain what’s involved in trial participation.