The CCTS congratulates the newest Gold STAR winners, Dr. Jessica Bentley, study coordinator Anna Roller and their team at the Department of Neurosurgery.
The CCTS Gold STAR (Striving Toward Accrual Radiance) Awards recognize teams for exceptional utilization of the Recruitment & Retention and Feasibility Worksheets, available through the CCTS Clinical Trials Kiosk. Anna Roller shares the strategies behind their recruitment and retention success.
What factors or strategies do you believe will make your team successful in patient recruitment?
We hope that good communication among team members and clinical staff as well as clear and appropriate communications with patients will lead to recruitment success. This includes reaching out to patients in a completely no-pressure atmosphere/manner and giving them adequate time/opportunities to learn about the study purpose and procedures.
How did you design your strategy to create the groundwork for your success?
I think the most important feature of any strategy is being aware of the factors that will impact recruitment and data collection for our study ahead of time. For me this means visiting the site to observe regular flow of clinical activities and forging relationships through pre-research interaction with clinical staff and collaborators on the team to ensure seamless integration of research activities that serves all and does not interfere with clinical procedures/needs. We want to be a welcome sight and for everyone involved to know how important they are to the research and how important their work is to us.
How did the tools provided by the CRSP team help in your planning?
We found the CCTS planning worksheets very helpful in identifying factors we may not have thought of immediately such as, "what training will research staff require"?
How does your team celebrate success together?
Our study has not yet begun but we hope our STAR award lunch will give us our first opportunity to celebrate our success in planning as a group!