Tips for Patient Recruitment and Education from a REIMED Clinical Research Coordinator in South Africa

Clinical research coordinator Luke Francke has a passion for meeting new people and helping the underprivileged community in Johannesburg, South Africa. With his team at the clinical trial site Research Excellence In Medicine Ltd. (REIMED), Francke tackles a variety of health conditions for patients including obesity, ​​COVID-19, HIV, and influenza. The site is active in clinical trials, with studies focused on asthma, autism, impetigo, atopic dermatitis, HIV, and vaccines. With a centrally located site, REIMED is easy for patients to access. “The site is open to all races and everyone is welcome to participate in our studies,” Francke said.

Francke shares details about his clinical trial site’s workflows, as well as tips for patient recruitment and education across the community.

One of the biggest challenges for the research team is patient recruitment and building awareness of trials.

Francke: “Our community is not properly informed about clinical trials and that makes it difficult to recruit participants for various studies. A lot of our time is spent educating and informing participants on clinical trials available. We explain to them that, in general, the medication they are currently using has been through clinical trials in the past for patients to be able to use it now.”

REIMED implements four best practices to accelerate patient recruitment. 

Francke: 

• "We thoroughly check our current database and surgery files for participants that meet the inclusion/exclusion criteria. If they meet the criteria, they are then shortlisted."
• “We look at various ways to advertise the clinical trials.”
• “We register the studies on NHRD (National Health Research Database) once we receive approval.”
• “We recruit participants locally from neighboring clinics and hospitals.” 

REIMED uses StudyTeam® for Sites technology to track patient progress through recruitment and enrollment.

Francke: "StudyTeam  is a very good fit for the current study I am working on. With this portal, while performing recruitment, I can easily keep track of all my patients and visually see my patients that are currently in the pre-screening process or those who are pre-screen/screen failures – and finally I can keep an eye on those patients we randomized, without missing any patients.”

In-person patient education about informed consent forms and patient diaries is also critical.  

Francke: “Participants arrive at the site to meet with one of our CRCs along with Dr. Agatha Wilhase, principal investigator and CEO of REIMED, in a group discussion where she discusses the ICF. Notes will be taken down on questions that have been asked by participants. Once the conversation is finished, Dr. Wilhase takes the participant to a room where the participant then signs the ICF. Once the consent is given, Dr. Wilhase will hand over the ICF to one of our CRCs, where he or she will quality control the ICF for any mistakes and assign a number to the participant.”

Once a patient is randomized and receives the investigational product, a CRC trains them on how to properly log entries in their patient diary throughout their participation in the trial.

For researchers at REIMED, the ultimate reward in clinical trial recruitment efforts is patient satisfaction.

Francke: “I am happy when we receive feedback from patients that had their standard of living improved due to the drug.”

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