Recruiting Clinical Trial Participants

Last revised: 
12/12/2016

Recruitment Materials and Strategy
Successful study recruitment involves development and implementation of a well-coordinated plan that may require the efforts of the entire research team. Once in place, subject recruitment efforts must be frequently assessed, with new strategies implemented as necessary. The study team must only use recruitment strategies and advertisements that have been approved by the UCSF Committee on Human Research (CHR) for that specific study.

Based upon the specific inclusion/exclusion criteria for a study, the study team should establish a suitable recruitment plan that is outlined and approved in the CHR application. Listed below are resources to assist with your recruitment efforts.

CTSI Recruitment Services
Recruiment Services including cohort identification and direct mail,  UCSF Research Participant Registry, Recruitment Materials Toolkit, and expert consultations are available to researchers at UCSF and affiliated institutions. For more information or to request assistance contact 415-514 8086 or [email protected]. Request consultation

UCSF Clinical Trials
UCSF Clinical Trials is a website that potential participants can use to search for studies and contact study teams to express their interest in enrolling.  The website pulls data from clinicaltrials.gov and other data sources to display information such as the study description, investigator name and inclusion/exclusion criteria.  To ensure that interested participants can reach the appropriate study team member, all study teams are encouraged to keep their clinicaltrial.gov records up-to-date and verify that the correct information is being displayed on UCSF Clinical Trials.  It is also helpful to use simple, easy-to-understand language in describing the study to assist visitors' comprehension.

Recruitment Guidelines and Tools