NHLBI IN THE PRESS

Hybrid recruitment strategy shows promise for reducing racial disparities in clinical trials

Mr. Curtis Minor, 58 year old AA Male who is taking part in the SPRINT study at Downtown Health Plaza with Miriam Baird, RN.
Credit: Wake Forest School of Medicine

An NHLBI-funded study revealed racial disparities in recruitment for clinical trials, but identified a hybrid strategy that couples the use of electronic medical records (EMR) with postal mailings is cost-effective and increases participation of underrepresented groups. The findings appeared in the journal Clinical Trials.

The researchers compared four electronic-based recruitment methods and four traditional recruitment methods to determine how different strategies may impact enrollment of groups traditionally under-represented in clinical trials, and, consequently in the medical literature that informs clinical practice.

Given the ubiquitous presence of EMR in all health care settings, scientists have increasingly turned to them to encourage participation in clinical trials. But there have been concerns about the potential deleterious effects of this overreliance on technology, in particular in the exclusion of racial and ethnic minorities and other underrepresented groups. 

This study found that a recruitment strategy that utilized the EMR to identify patients, followed up by mailing information to potential participants yielded the best results. This hybrid strategy represents a promising approach to improve the timely execution and broad generalizability of future clinical trials.

“All patients have the right to be offered medical therapies informed by studies that represent them,” said lead researcher Stephen Juraschek, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). “These findings also demonstrate the importance of a range of recruitment approaches to enroll a representative study population.”