Patient Recruitment
Patient recruitment provides local communities with access to clinical research opportunities.
Becoming a part of the communities we serve starts with building trust, moving beyond words and into action. That is why we are dedicated to working with national, regional and local advocacy organizations by supporting programs, volunteering, offering research education and support, and ensuring the patient voice is a part of everything we do. We partner with healthcare and service providers to ensure research opportunities are an option for all. As countless new therapies show promising results for those living with chronic conditions, with the support of patients and their loved ones, together we will transform the future of life-changing therapies.
Industry-leading Patient Access
ERG’s stellar position as a leading clinical research site network is underpinned by our proven ability to consistently recruit and retain highly specialized patient populations. This often requires a multipronged approach. We harness each clinical trial site’s established community presence and long-standing relationships with networks of referral sources, then drive new patients to each site via centralized marketing and outreach activities that touch 32 million people. The result is our robust, highly searchable database of more than 215,000 patients, refreshed daily—a powerful recruitment tool.
- Proven ability to outperform original patient allotment by as much as 150%
- Database of 215,000 patients
Centralized Planning and Communication
ERG’s centralized recruitment program increases patient flow through careful planning and execution. We tailor a recruitment plan for each clinical research study to maximize the efficacy of the sponsor spend and to ensure timely activation of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) submission. We carefully track performance metrics to support clearly targeted outreach efforts and command favorable marketing rates through the increased buying power of multiple sites. Further, our centralized approach means sponsors have a single point of contact for all recruitment conversations.
Metrics-based Screening
When patients respond to our initial recruitment activity, we screen them for factors that are typical inclusion or exclusion criteria. With those metrics in our system, we can filter our list very accurately to swiftly enroll patients in a wide variety of trials.
Peerless Patient Recruitment
With recruitment teams at each clinical research site in our network, ERG has built strong, deep community relationships through targeted tactics—relationships it bolsters through centralized marketing efforts.
- Patient Education. Ongoing educational efforts reduce prospective patients’ concerns and misconceptions about clinical research studies. We conduct Lunch and Learns, partnering with physicians and advocacy groups. We work with The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation. Our principal investigators appear on television and our recruiters post educational information on Facebook. In short, we serve as a resource for anybody who wants to learn more about a clinical trial or an indication for which we are recruiting.
- Personalized Communications Channels. We contact recruits via phone, emails, text blasts—however they prefer to receive communications.
- Rich Local Relationships. At each of our sites we have deep relationships with referring physicians, medical centers (such as imaging or dialysis centers), and advocacy groups.
- Traditional Advertising. We supplement our other outreach efforts with print, radio, television, and digital advertising.
As a result, we have a large database of patients who are known to us, for whom we have detailed metrics and profile information—and who are actively interested in participating in a clinical research study.
Robust Patient Retention Programs
For a successful trial, retention is as important as enrollment—and patient engagement is a defining core competency that unites the ERG networks. We begin by understanding firsthand the patients’ unmet medical needs, seeking input on protocol feasibility and then providing patients with education and awareness of the risks and benefits of clinical trial participation. We support patients throughout the trial, providing transportation within a three-hour radius, and developing close, compassionate relationships with both patients and their caregivers.
When studies require inpatient stays, we carefully design our centers to make them as pleasant as possible, with recreational facilities, bedside gaming, and other comforts for each patient population, while carefully ensuring that we are not contributing to a placebo effect.
Throughout the study, patients not only get care for the condition being studied, their general health is attended to. After the study, we make sure they leave with compensation—and hopefully medication that has helped them—plus additional contacts for community resources that can help them with both healthcare and other life needs. At ERG, we consider ourselves part of the continuum of care.