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: 

African American Health Disparities Rare Disease: Vasculitis
Amish Hispanic Americans Spinal Cord Injuries

Asthma, Severe

HIV/ID Veterans
Child Health/Pediatrics LGBTQ Women's and Perinatal Health
Disabled Persons Opioid  
Geriatrics Psychiatric Populations  

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

Cleveland CTSC Recruitment Focus Group Webinars 

January 2021

Clinical and research health professionals from the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University engaged in a collaborative focused discussion on the challenges and opportunities for success in recruiting for clinical trials in NE Ohio (video length 1:22:30).

The CTSC helps to facilitate timely and responsible completion of human research studies, particularly those requiring recruitment of populations that are difficult to reach (Integrating Special Populations or ISP).

ISP Point Persons:

  1. are local investigators, providers, and subject matter experts with knowledge of special populations and recruitment barriers
  2. will advise and assist investigators in creating recruitment and retention strategies for a wide range of populations
  3. will convene to establish best practices

The objectives of this webinar include:

  1. sharing best practices
  2. identifying recruitment and retention strategies for specified populations
  3. establishing a city-wide collaboration for future studies in special populations

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?

Cleveland Clinic

To submit a request for services: SPARCRequest

MetroHealth

To submit a request for services: SPARCRequest

University Hospitals   

Recruitment support: https://www.uhhospitals.org/uh-research/for-researchers/research-and-clinical-trials/core-offices/research-support/recruitment-support

To submit a request for services:  Research Recruitment Consultation Request