Medical Device Trials: Patient Recruitment Differences?

January 23, 2009

Praxis' director of marketing, Chris Layfield, offers insight into patient recruitment and developing a strategic recruitment plan when conducting medical device trials.

Medical Device Trials: Patient Recruitment Differences?

Chris Layfield, director of marketing at Brentwood, TN-based Praxis, told Applied Clinical Trials, “Like any trial, pharmaceutical or device, the process to developing a strategic recruitment plan is the same. One must fully understand the protocol and devise procedures to the extent that an accurate patient profile can be established. Without this, one cannot hope to effectively create a targeted reach program.”

Layfield explained after that is established, the appropriate primary, secondary and experiential research is done to determine how best to reach the persons identified in the profile – those that will be the most likely candidates for trial participation. Layfield offered this example; an acute situation where a new implantable device is being tested in heart attack patients. “If the decision to try the new device were to be needed within several hours or even less after a heart procedure then, information needs to be available to the treating physician and the family of the candidate at the time they present at the ER.”