Patient Recruitment for Pediatric Study Solved In 5 Days: A Case Study

The challenge: 

The CRO’s clinical operations team was considering different countries to boost patient recruitment: Hungary, Czech Republic, and Poland, for a pediatric study focused on patients with a chronic condition and already on therapy. The CRO, one of the top 10, was planning a Phase 2 study to compare a new compound with a drug already on the market. The compound had to be taken for a long period of time (5+years) in combination with an e-Diary.

They wanted to understand both the patients’ and the investigator’s perspectives on how promising this study might be in these countries in regards to patient recruitment and decide where to open sites.

The approach:

  • TrialHub provided a high-level country comparison between the three countries based on startup timelines, prevalence data, and competition;
  • The clinical operations team then requested a more in-depth understanding of the Standard of care (SoC) of patients in this age group. TrialHub provided an SoC map for each country showing that the comparison drug had been prescribed to the majority of patients in this group. 
  • On top of that, patient insights proved that patients are technically literate, with access to mobile devices, making the use of the e-Diary completely possible. Parents were open to provide their children with another alternative with the hope that it would improve their childrens’ overall lifestyle. 
  • Thanks to insights coming from KOLs and investigators and delivered through TrialHub, the operational team also received a confirmation in two of the countries that investigators see this study as a benefit for their patients as the study compound is if not similar then maybe even more promising for their patients. The other country was more centralized around a concrete KOL, whose study engagement would be crucial for the study’s success.

The results:

With less than 3 clicks on TrialHub and 5 days in total, the CRO’s team was able to generate unique insights about the patient recruitment potential of three countries. This helped them make a quick and strategic decision on the site allocation of all these countries and initiated the start-up process as soon as they had the insights. They were also able to get some invaluable recommendations on how to approach the study in each of the countries in order to engage with both the right sites and the patients and their parents in order to speed up patient recruitment. 

Scroll to Top