Recruitment Support

General Consults and Inclusion of Special Populations

Participant Recruitment Specialists

 

The CTSC is dedicated to engaging underrepresented populations – like those distinguished by language, disability, condition, risk, culture, geographic location/dispersion, socioeconomic status, race or ethnicity – at all levels of research and in all of our programs. Your site has Participant Recruitment Specialists ready to provide consultations to meet your recruitment goals. They can help you access institutional expertise in recruiting special populations. They can assist in the development of a recruitment plan and guide you in creating advertising, social media and hospital network or community recruitment events.

At each site, institutional expertise is available to guide investigators in using the strength of our northeast Ohio networks to recruit special populations: 

Diverse Populations
Hispanic Americans

African American

Amish
LGBTQ
Geriatrics
Women's and Perinatal Health
Veterans
Child Health/Pediatrics 
Disabled Persons
Psychiatric Populations
Specific Conditions and Rare Diseases

 

Contact Us

 

To help your Participant Recruitment Specialist help you, are you prepared to discuss:

  • Funding source? (Department, Industry, Federal, Foundation, etc.)
  • What stage are you in project implementation?  (study design, ready to submit to the IRB, in IRB review, IRB-approved)
  • Have you conducted a feasibility assessment at your site?
  • How many participants are to be enrolled?
  • Proposed enrollment start date?
  • Proposed enrollment end date?
  • Potentially challenging inclusion/exclusion criteria?
  • Genders to recruit?
  • Eligibility age?
  • Are you planning to target special populations and if so, what populations?
  • Potential recruitment sites you’d like to access? (academic teaching hospitals, community sites, other)
  • What recruitment methods would you like to use?
  • Will you be using E-consent?
  • Have you written a recruitment plan?

 

Request Services or Consultation 

To submit a request for services: SPARCRequest


 

Recruitment Tips and Tools for Study Teams

Successful recruitment of participants is a critical determinant of clinical trial success and one of the most challenging aspects of conducting clinical trials.  Many clinical trials fail to reach enrollment goals.  The 20-minute video below is designed to provide a broad introduction to recruitment and retention of participants in clinical research for investigators and study teams. 

Key topics include: 

  • The role of a participant recruitment specialist
  • Importance of recruitment
  • Overview of a recruitment plan
  • Helpful tips for recruitment
  • Useful recruitment tools and methods

 

NIH and Industry Trial Guidance

To learn more about clinical trial recruitment, visit the following sites:

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Grants.gov

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)