As the industry continues to expand, and strains to meet ever-more challenging timelines and budgets, the state of the art in patient recruitment remains an urgent topic. But 2008 promises to be a period of continued exploration of how to find appropriate patients as efficiently as possible. We foresee the continuation of four trends. 1. Concentrating Expertise We are watching the growing popularity of centers of excellence dedicated to patient recruitment. Upper management has realized the importance of patient enrollment and the magnitude of knowledge required to carry it out. Fortunately, best practices in recruitment have been documented by experts in the field and can support institutionalizing recruitment knowledge. 2. Multivariate Country Selection Conducting studies outside of North America, especially in those countries with treatment-naïve patients, was once viewed as a silver bullet to increasing enrollment. It is still important. But the industry has recently shown evidence of approaching country selection…more...