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
NIH and Industry Trial Guidance
To learn more about clinical trial recruitment, visit the following sites:
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Grants.gov
- Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Participants in Research Involving Human Subjects
- Inclusion Across the Lifespan
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
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:
- are local investigators, providers, and subject matter experts with knowledge of special populations and recruitment barriers
- will advise and assist investigators in creating recruitment and retention strategies for a wide range of populations
- will convene to establish best practices
The objectives of this webinar include:
- sharing best practices
- identifying recruitment and retention strategies for specified populations
- 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/
To submit a request for services: Research Recruitment Consultation Request