At Phoenix Trial Management Group, we understand that the success of any healthcare trial hinges on the careful selection of research sites. Our Site Selection and Feasibility service is designed to streamline this critical process, ensuring the most suitable sites are chosen to maximize the chances of success in clinical research endeavors.
Clinical research demands careful consideration of ethical, scientific, methodological, and operational aspects. Several aspects play a role in selecting a site for sponsored multicenter clinical studies. First and most importantly, a site taking part in each clinical trial must have access to a relatively high volume of patients meeting the eligibility criteria, expertise in the area, appropriate facilities or equipment, and trained investigators eager to perform research.
In addition, prior research experience of the study site provides an indicator of past performance in recruitment and data quality. Trial procedures such as contracting, informed consent process, and submissions to ethical and regulatory authorities are a great advantage as these aspects may be a great hurdle.
The operational aspects to take into consideration during site selection are the availability of dedicated staff (such as a study coordinator and trained investigators), the use of quality systems, and specific requirements of ethical committees that may affect the speed of approvals. Convergence of all the above factors in one site proves very difficult and must be carefully evaluated along with organizational and regulatory aspects.
In conclusion, our experience with the newly implemented site selection process is promising. It uses networks as means of advertisement, establishment of objective criteria for assessment, a multistep screening process to identify potentially good sites with interest in research, templates tailored to the study requirements, and verification of data.