Clinical trials are susceptible to numerous challenges at every stage, particularly in relation to staffing, patient recruitment, and inefficient end-to-end process management with multiple vendors. Therefore, for clinical research to be successful, it must address these challenges, ideally by resolving them at their source to prevent or mitigate delays and cost inflations.
The solution often lies in obtaining the appropriate level of support to streamline the obstacles that arise on the clinical trial pathway. To understand this more, we must examine the factors that influence trial success and how partnering with a life sciences recruitment agency can help you satisfy key variables.
What Factors Contribute to Clinical Trial Success?
The success of clinical trials hinges on several critical factors:
Efficient Study Design
Study design involves careful planning to articulate the primary research question, define outcomes, minimize variability, control bias, establish proper controls, select appropriate subjects and sample sizes, and anticipate potential issues. Poor study design can lead to resource shortages, improper methods, and unreliable results.
Effective Patient Recruitment Strategies
Kim et al. (2023) noted that nearly one-fifth of clinical trials are terminated due to a lack of sufficient patient enrollment, while around 80% fail to meet enrollment goals and timelines, resulting in per diem losses of $8 million for drug discovery companies.1 A well-thought-out recruitment strategy is crucial, but obstacles such as lack of awareness, outreach challenges, and accessibility issues hinder success. Patient retention is also a concern due to adverse effects, accessibility barriers, and shifting attitudes.
Reliable Data Management
Data management involves handling the wealth of information generated during a trial to ensure its integrity and prevent loss. Challenges include maintaining data accuracy, integrating data from multiple sources, complying with regulations, ensuring security to protect patient privacy, and recruiting knowledgeable and skilled personnel.
The Role of Comprehensive Support Services in Facilitating Clinical Trial Success
Support services delivered by a life sciences recruitment agency take on much of the burden of trial success for clinical research organizations. When choosing a recruitment agency, you should seek a partner who can offer a comprehensive suite of services, such as those we specialize in at Medix:
- Feasibility and planning: The Medix Life Sciences team is there with you from the beginning to help answer questions concerning a site’s readiness, its ability to reach the target population, and other foundational issues.
- Site enablement: We offer staffing solutions for setup, compliance, visibility, and your research objectives, all tailored to your trial’s specific needs.
- Clinical operations: Our resources are available to you throughout the trial to facilitate execution with its parameters and timeline.
- Site resource augmentation: Scale your resources as needed to support your study protocols and patient populations. That includes experienced on-demand talent to fill vacancies from dropouts.
- Decentralization services: Our talent pool can accommodate multiple clinical research sites through remote, travel, and other decentralized work models.
- Study rescue: When challenges arise, our team and resources help you overcome them in a timely, cost-effective way.
- Physician services: Protect your research participants and data integrity with essential oversight from our pool of experienced physicians.
Benefits of Partnering With Medix
Partnering with Medix Life Sciences can drive your trial’s success and offers the following advantages:
- Cost savings: Trial delays can cost millions of dollars. Rapidly filling trial vacancies, whether on staff or among your patients, can spell the difference in ensuring that your trial remains within budget.
- Time savings: Medix is always in the background, granting you access to a vast talent pool numbering in the millions. We shoulder the responsibility of identifying, vetting, and onboarding candidates so you can devote your time and resources to your trial.
- Improved patient recruitment: Our feasibility, planning, and site enablement services help you establish an optimal ecosystem for conducting patient outreach and populating your study with the right participants.
- Better data accuracy: Having the right talent at the right times means having staff that can appropriately manage trial data while bridging any discontinuities that might lead to poor practices and data loss.
Let a Life Sciences Staffing Partner Help You Achieve Your Objectives
In addition to effective design, skilled staff, and dependable data, the benefits we’ve described all come together to support your trial objectives. Let a life sciences staffing partner such as Medix take on key support tasks so you can devote your resources to the clinical and operational aspects of your study. Tell us about your needs, and discover the difference Medix can make in your outcomes.
1. Kim, Eungdo, Jaehoon Yang, Sungjin Park, and Kwangsoo Shin. (2023). “Factors Affecting Success of New Drug Clinical Trials.” Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10173933
