Email comes top in terms of cost and efficacy in study comparing recruitment strategies

Email can be a surprisingly effective – and cost effective - recruitment tool for clinical trials according to a new study.

The study – published in the current edition of the Journal of Clinical Trials – compared the efficacy of several different patient recruitment strategies, specifically using email, letters, and in person visits.

And according to the results, email proved to be the most effective way. Some four hundred and nine patients enrolled in our trial over a 10-month period. 397 (97.06%) patients enrolled in the study via email.

In contrast, only four of the 7,226 patients enrolled in the study. Similarly, only eight patients who were approached in person signed up.

Cost effective

Another finding was that recruitment via email was much more cost effective than other strategies.

The cost of the email campaign was $1.44 per patient and the cost per enrollment was the least expensive, at $95.71. In person enrollment cost $23.34 per patient and cost, in total, $417.12.

Letter recruitment cost just $0.30/patient, however, as the authors point out, the cost per enrollment was the highest, at $542.26.

According to the authors “email is an effective, efficient and economical way to recruit patients for clinical trials. By using email to broaden our reach, more patients can be contacted about studies, and ultimately enrolled in trials.

“This is especially important for pragmatic research trials which are designed to get results in a timely and cost efficient manner.”

Multi-strategy approach

However, the authors stressed the importance of a multi-strategy approach using a range of patient contact and outreach techniques to recruitment, citing the ability to reach under represented populations as a key benefit.

“Although for this trial we had more success using email to recruit patients, letters are still a good option for certain patient populations. Patients with a socio-economic disadvantage may not have access to internet regularly and would not receive an email.

Only about 40% of adults over the age of 65 use email, and they are less likely to use email if they are disabled or have certain physical limitations [17]. Knowing this, letter and in person strategies are still needed to recruit those subjects."

Image: Stock Photo Secrets