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Emailing is an Economical Strategy to Recruit Participants

Kirsten Raby, Karen Blinson, David M Herrington, David X Zhao, Gary Rosenthal, W Schuyler Jones, Li Zhou*

Background: In order to produce results from clinical trials that are statistically significant, researchers must enroll enough participants; however, it is often difficult to recruit a sufficient number of participants.

Methods: We analyzed different patient recruitment strategies using email, letters, and in person visits in the framework of the ADAPTABLE study which is a randomized controlled study of two dosages of aspirin in patients with established cardiovascular disease.

Results: Four hundred and nine patients enrolled in our trial over a 10-month period. 397 (97.06%) patients enrolled in the study via email. Letters were sent to 7,226 patients. Four (0.98%) patients contacted via letter enrolled in the study. Eight (1.96%) of the patients who were approached in person enrolled in the study. The cost of email campaign was $1.44/patient and the cost per enrollment was the least expensive, at $95.71. In person enrollment cost $23.34/patient and the total cost per enrollment was $417.12. The letter recruitment cost $0.30/patient, however, the cost per enrollment was the highest, at $542.26.

Conclusion: Email is an effective and economical way to recruit patients for clinical trials. Email allows researchers to contact more patients about proposed studies promptly and facilitates pragmatic research trials that achieve results in a timely and cost efficient manner.