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Print this PageAnalyze the trial’s accrual data for lessons learned
Review accrual data and discern lessons learned to improve future trials
- The team will likely have a general sense of how recruitment went for the trial. You may even be able to think of a few things you know now that you wish you had known at the start of the trial. Use accrual data to confirm (or not) your impressions on recruitment. If your team faced accrual difficulties, use this stage for learning and improving. If your team was successful, pause and celebrate.
Determine the trial’s value to your institution
- In earlier stages (Developing a Trial or Selecting and Preparing to Open a Trial), you considered how this trial would fit into your institution’s research portfolio. Take a moment to think about that. In what ways did the closed trial contribute to that portfolio? Given an opportunity, would you select such a trial again for your research portfolio? If so, what does that tell you about your site’s strengths? If not, why not?
Analyze data from a terminated trial
- This suggestion does not mean analyze the study data with respect to the research question; rather, it means analyze the data to see how realistic your accrual goals and actions for the trial were. Recruitment is often difficult and trials sometimes fail to accrue participants. We can learn from failures—perhaps even more than we can learn from success. So, analyze accrual-specific recruitment data from failed trials carefully—using your openness to learning as a way to avoid blame and to foster a deeper understanding. Hopefully, as the field learns and develops approaches, processes, and habits that support accrual, we will all have fewer “unaccrued” trials and more successes from which to draw lessons.
Literature and Tools (56)
Clin Trials. 2012 Apr. 9. 2. 188-97.
KEYWORDS: Knowledge/Attitudes/Beliefs, Logistics/Transportation, Underserved, Level of Clinical Trials Knowledge or Awareness, Staff Experience Level, Physician Champions, Provider-Patient Relationship, Attitudes, Minority Groups, Verbal Communications, Brochure or Flyer, Non-Cancer
EMPACT (Enhancing Minority Participation in Clinical Trials).
KEYWORDS: Language or Cultural Barriers, Minority Groups
Cancer. 2006 Jan 15. 106. 2. 258-70.
KEYWORDS: Knowledge/Attitudes/Beliefs, Logistics/Transportation, Staff Experience Level, Inadequate Staffing, Eligibility, Study Burden, Consent, Older Adults, Minority Groups, Cancer
Clin Trials. 2006. 3. 2. 133-41.
KEYWORDS: Underserved, Older Adults, Minority Groups, Black or African-American, Hispanic or Latino
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2001. 1. 4. 2001.
KEYWORDS: Non-Cancer
