It’s an industry known fact, over 80% of clinical trial do not meet their original enrollment timelines due to slow patient recruitment. Sites, as small businesses, lack the resources, time, and expertise to effectively recruit patients within the Sponsor’s timelines. Multiple studies are competing for the study coordinator’s time to identify patients for the study. The difficult or labor-intensive patient identification studies are most effected. Site performance is the number one reason why clinical trials do not meet their enrollment timelines.

The COVID pandemic has put a larger burden on sites to meet their enrollment goals. Many sites are smaller in size due to people being laid off or leaving the industry. Studies are now fighting for the few hours the study coordinator has in their day. Due to this, the difficult to find patient studies are going to fall to the bottom of the priority list. Only limited, easy to implement recruitment activities will be done, causing more delays in enrollment.