Increasing the Use of Technology in Feasibility

For years ISR has tracked the dynamics that surround patient and investigator recruitment. Not surprisingly, the industry has challenges associated with recruiting patients into many of its clinical trials. These difficulties aren't confined to just recruiting the patients. The industry has struggled—and continues to struggle—with predicting the recruitment of patients; the process known as feasibility in our industry. For years the industry has relied on poor quality databases, rudimentary questionnaires, and fading technologies to estimate trial recruitment. Even today 36% of the industry relies on fax-based questionnaires to prospective sites to generate recruitment estimates.

But there is reason to be hopeful. In 2009, as part of its Patient and Investigator Recruitment Success research, ISR asked industry representatives how often they rely on various information sources, processes, and technologies as part of their feasibility and trial planning process. Only 14% of respondents indicated they used electronic medical records data to estimate recruitment and 49% indicated an intention to increase this use. It turns out their predictions were correct. In its 2012 update of this research ISR found that 21% of respondents are using EMR data for feasibility estimates. And just as important, 52% indicate that their use of EMR will continue to increase over the next three years.

—Industry Standard Research, www.ISRreports.com.