Qualified Investigators
Qualified investigators
A major challenge facing the industry, at present, is the ability to find and retain qualified investigators. More complex protocols are demanding more and more of investigative site personnel and study volunteers.
The Tufts CSDD study was the first ever to quantify the impact of changes in protocol design on clinical trials performance. Results reported in the Jan/Feb 2008 Impact Report showed:
- The annual growth rate of unique procedures per protocol grew 6.5% between 1999 and 2005;
- Clinical trials are taking longer:
- Volunteer enrolment rates dropped from 75% in 1999-2002 to 59% in 2003-2006 whilst volunteer retention rates declined from 69% to 48%;
- The work effort required of investigative site personnel to administer clinical study protocols is rising faster than the rate of growth of unique procedures or their frequency per protocol
At Synexus the investigators are focused on the task at hand and dedicated solely to research. Because of this, the investigators are very experienced. Each hub team has run an average of 104 clinical trials, which equates to 40 clinical trials per principle investigator.