Most clinical trials are dependent, not only on the willingness of patients and professionals to participate but also, on meeting recruitment targets and fulfilling policy requirements to include a wide range of demographics in their research. If the recruitment target is not achieved, the clinical research may be delayed, impacting advancements in medicine altogether. As such, there are instances where incentives are used to recruit and retain research subjects (including health professionals) for clinical trials. However, there are concerns that these incentives are coercive, and encourage individuals to enrol for the wrong reasons. For instance, low income groups may join the research solely for the financial benefit. Hence, the ethical responsibility to untangle the use of incentives in clinical trials and to ensure that research subjects are respected and not discriminated during recruitment is a strong motivation for us to determine which is the best way to incentivise the recruitment process.
This project will use discrete choice experiments (DCEs) to answer the following questions:
1. What are the factors individuals consider when deciding whether to participate in a clinical trial?
2. What are the preferred incentives for individuals to join clinical trials?
3. Can the recruitment process be enhanced with incentives at minimal cost and maximal patient satisfaction?
From these results, we can propose an ideal incentivisation strategy, that in the long run, could provide valuable information for policy makers and ethics committees when considering incentive laws for clinical trial recruitment.
