INCREASING ETHNIC DIVERSITY AND MANAGED CARE - HOW WILL THEY INFLUENCE RESEARCH PATIENT RECRUITMENT IN THE NINETIES

The challenge of research patient recruitment is intensifying in the 1 990s. Relevant factors include the often negative impact of the press, increasing competition for patients, an increasingly ethnically diver se population, and a pervasive trend toward managed care. Based on pre liminary findings from a patient focus group, 550 patients were contac ted by mail and asked to complete a 25-item questionnaire. Survey resu lts indicate that for most study patients initial telephone contact wi th a health care professional is not as important as the perception of a genuinely caring (i.e., ''non-guinea pig'') environment. Office loc ation and other intangibles also affect recruitment; furthermore, seve ral of the benefits sought by volunteers transcend ethnicity. The tren d toward managed care will not impede and may enhance research patient recruitment. This research provides information and data that will en able investigators and sponsors to better meet the challenges of patie nt recruitment in the 1990s.