Top 10 Patient Recruiting Companies for Clinical Trials in 2023

Patient recruitment is often one step in clinical research that leads to timeline delays and increased costs due to the difficulty in finding qualified patients, so sponsors often choose to outsource this task or work with companies with specialized expertise in recruiting participants.

In this post, we discuss some things to keep in mind when looking for a company to recruit patients for your trial, and then we offer a list of the top 10 companies currently offering patient recruitment services for clinical trials.

Things to consider when choosing a patient recruitment company for clinical trials

Define your target demographic clearly

Delays often result from filtering out large numbers of applicants who don’t fit the inclusion criteria, so clearly defining and communicating these criteria is important so that the recruitment company can make them explicit in their recruitment campaign. Provide as much transparency as possible about the patient demographic you need for the study so your recruitment partner can design an appropriately targeted strategy and recruit patients efficiently.

Understand your potential participants and consider their personal experience

What type of strategy is most likely to resonate with your target population? This is the first interaction the potential participant will have with your trial and treatment option, so it is an opportunity to present your trial clearly - try to put yourself in their shoes to understand what sort of information they need to make the decision.

Look for specific experience in your field of research

The recruitment process can vary greatly depending on the type of study and the target study population, so try to look for a recruitment partner that will meet your trial needs. Do they have patients in the therapeutic area you are targeting? Do they have a diverse patient pool that will ensure your trial is representative? These are just some of the questions to explore.

Pro tip: Connect with high-intent patients directly through Power’s patient recruitment marketplace

Power is the most consumer-friendly marketplace for engaged patients to find and connect with promising clinical trials. We are replacing clinicaltrials.gov for patients who want to do their own research on potential clinical trials to participate in. Our patient-centric web experience makes it easy for patients to research and discover clinical trials. And, as a result, tens of thousands of patients search for trials on Power every month.

Power works with sponsors to accelerate recruitment timelines by connecting patients from our platform to their trial sites. Sponsors can claim their patient-friendly trial profiles, customize their screening criteria, and monitor analytics on patient drop off across the funnel at every site. Power then works with research sites to connect them with interested patients on our platform that are not in their existing network.

Check out Power

9 Other Patient Recruiting Companies for Clinical Trials

Next, we will take a quick look at 9 other companies specializing in patient recruitment. These are not ranked, but rather listed in a numbered order.

1. StudyKIK

StudyKIK offers a qualification and recruitment process to support sites in reaching enrollment targets. They create custom-tailored solutions and help sites find qualified patients. Their in-house Patient Communication Team helps sites find verified patients who are motivated. They also offer PatientTracker which is a platform to track, analyze and communicate with study participants.

2. Splash Clinical

Splash Clinical offers innovative marketing solutions, leveraging social media, data analytics and mobile technologies to help sites reach qualified participants for their studies. They provide a dedicated Campaign Manager that creates custom digital marketing strategies for your study site. They also support global patient recruitment with experience in 30+ countries across the globe.

3. Antidote

Antidote offers full-service clinical trial patient recruitment. They support sponsors and sites in finding eligible patients by finding target profiles through their partner network of 300+ organizations, and then completing pre-screening and validation. They also provide site-follow ups to close the loop.

4. Trialbee

Trialbee offers two main patient recruitment solutions. Trialbee Hive™ is a data-driven recruitment approach where data science is applied to real-world data to find qualified patients. Trialbee Honey™ is a centralized participant management platform where sites can map the patient journey from candidacy through enrollment.

5. SubjectWell

SubjectWell offers a clinical trial marketplace and focuses on using broad education campaigns to introduce the idea of clinical research to people. Once someone registers and expresses interest in participating in clinical research, they are screened against criteria for multiple studies until a suitable study is found.

6. BBK Worldwide

BBK Worldwide offers adaptable and hybrid solutions for patient recruitment and engagement, connecting patients and researchers through their TrialCentralNet® platform. They have worked with major names in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. BBK Worldwide offer a range of services to both sponsors/sites and patients alike, including patient travel logistics, and place high importance on meaningful and authentic engagement with patients.

7. PatientEvolution

PatientEvolution offers patient education, patient recruitment, and patient lifecycle management services, and has been helping deliver qualified patients to clinical trial sites quickly and efficiently since 2015. Their cloud-based platform, PatientEvolution™ is able to geo-locate, pre-screen, and track patients throughout the recruitment process.

8. Clariness

Clariness offers solutions for patient recruitment for clinical trials globally. Clariness boasts 17 years of experience in patient recruitment and engagement, and their ClinLife® technology has been used by thousands of sites in over 50 countries. Their team of over 70 employees offers recruitment services in 35 languages, promising ‘cost-effective and rapid conversion of referrals to randomizations.’

9. AutoCruitment

AutoCruitment is revolutionizing the recruitment process for clinical trial sponsors, touting a 60% reduction in cost per randomized subject. They use a “hyper-targeted” online platform to recruit, screen, and refer new patients for clinical trials. Autocruitment mobilizes over 1,500 direct-to-patient online channels, and has reached over 247 million participants for 578 trials for over 124 different conditions and counting.