Our best tips to recruit investigators effectively

Are you a project manager and you are in charge of recruiting investigators for biomedical research? Let us present you below simple tips to adapt in order to easily find doctors  to whom you will suggest your project. These solutions are more or less costly and time consuming, you can choose the right method and the right time depending on your type of project.

1. You are never well served as when you serve yourself. 🙂

Consult your company’s records. If you have already worked on researches related to the same disease or the same area of expertise, then, use the names of doctors who participated in these projects. Make sure that MR001 about the data of these doctors has been respected in your company then select in priority those who included patients, you will have more chance of achieving your goals in terms of recruitment 😉

2. Internet, the best place to find your investigators!

Seek doctors who are already in clinical research. You can visit sites that list underway or completed clinical trials.

a. The American clinicaltrials.gov.fr identifies worldwide trials. You can search by specifying the pathology on which bears your trial or the doctors specialty you are seeking. Do not forget to specify the country in which you want to set up your study. However, all proposed studies do not indicate the names of the investigators, you will have to search a bit. Click here to access to the website.

b. If your study covers cancer, the National Cancer Institute offers a register of trials in France. You can select a family of organs or a particular organ. Click here to reach the website.

c. If your study focuses on AIDS or viral hepatitis, you will find perhaps your investigators to the site of the ANRS. The site offers a list of tests performed by the ANRS in France. Click here to visit the website.

d. If your study covers an orphan disease or a rare disease, the portal for rare diseases and orphan drugs ORPHANET offers a list of tests. You can perform your search according to the disease targeted by the study or according to the gene involved. Click here to go to the website.

3. Word of mouth, it works too!

If you have hired some investigators, put them involved. During a conversation with the investigator, ask him if he knows doctors who might be interested in this study and have good potential for patients to be included. If he refuses to give you their names, ask him if he would talk to his colleagues. If he accepts, transmit your business card and a study submission form maintaining the confidentiality of your project so that he can easily give them to those interested colleagues.

4. Scientific meetings to better recruit…

You can also attend a convention dedicated to the specialty you seek. Accompany the scientific team at this convention to propose the study directly to doctors on the site

5. Advertising, why not?

With the agreement of your promoter, you can also place an advertisement in the press. Contact them, they may be willing to write an article about your project. Otherwise, mind to contact their advertising.

6. Your research must be focused.

Seeking doctors at the source: the places where they perform (houses and health centers, specialized services in the given pathology,…) or associations or doctors networks.

7. Let a specialist provider helps you.

If you need a large number of investigators, you can consider buying a file of doctors with an organization.

These tips will help you to find doctors for your studies. However, make sure that these doctors have the biomedical research experiences and are already trained with the operative the regulatory provisions, with Good Clinical Practices and / or Epidemiology.

Good research and see you soon!

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