4 Factors to Consider During Trials Site Selection

Choosing the right site for your trial can be daunting, even with the best Veristat oncology trial design. You have dozens of factors to consider, from simple considerations like geographical location and study equipment to complex ones like cost and competition. If picking the best site for your clinical trial is complicated, employing an experienced CRO can help you go about the complex challenges you’re facing. As a result, you’ll choose a high-quality site that enables the trial to finish on time, on budget, and with reasonable clinical findings. That said, the following are four crucial factors to consider when selecting a site for a successful clinical trial. 

The Clinical Trial’s Cost

In a study involving 640 clinical trials, 22% failed due to insufficient funding. That tells you how critical it is to analyze all costs when selecting a clinical trial site. While you should ensure your suitable site fits in your budget, have extra funding for unplanned future costs because clinical trials are full of uncertainties. But with sufficient resources, and working with a reliable CRO like Veristat you can decrease the likelihood of delay and higher unexpected costs by having a solid contingency plan. 

Location of the Clinical Site

When setting priorities for a clinical site, location is one of the key concerns to consider, which helps you offer convenience to your patients. For instance, you want your patients to easily access the trial facilities, ensuring a better overall patient experience and increased retention in your studies. To choose a suitable location, you can consider factors like proximity to the highway, accessibility to a nearby busy retail district, a safe parking area, and nearness to a desirable residential community.  The point is, your patients prefer a site that offers convenience. Rather than driving to a distant remote area, they will appreciate it if you locate your site in their neighborhood. 

The Size of the Site

Your site’s size is another vital factor to consider. It determines your ability to expand the trial when it comes to patient enrollment goals and the number of trial machines that comfortably fit in a particular area. For that reason, pick an area that can house your project’s square-footage needs, parking infrastructure, and other accommodation concerns without a lot of excess space. Don’t overbuy the space unless you have bigger plans to expand your trial. 

Competition

It’s not uncommon for multiple similar clinical studies to operate in the same area. In such a case, competition determines the speed and the number of participants in your clinical trial. The reason is, you and your competitors will recruit concurrently from the same patient population, resulting in stiff competition for participants. For this reason, you need to analyze current trials targeting a similar patient population in an area. That way, you’ll avoid unhealthy competition for patients, which is often the reason for a trial’s delay or failure. To achieve that, you can explore other sites and evaluate their suitability to your clinical trial needs. Alternatively, you can slightly alter the patient enrollment requirement, like age, or change the trials timelines. Still, it’s wiser to delay a trial than force your way through and fail before getting any reasonable findings. 

As a clinical trial owner, you want successful research, which starts with considering crucial concerns when selecting a site.