RECRUITING COMPLEX MEDICAL PATIENTS - LESSONS FROM A STUDY OF PAIN IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND CANCER - study on pain differences

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Marglet

Recruiting participants with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cancer presented substantial identification and referral challenges despite multi-channel recruitment, low-yield community outreach, and embedded clinic staff. Collaboration with dementia- and oncology-specialty clinicians, community memory care resources, and cancer clinical trials recruitment coordinators enabled systematic screening using clinic schedules and proactive, empathy-trained recruiter engagement. Participant enrollment rates for AD plus cancer increased from 0.24 to 2.26 per month, while emerging AI chart search tools remained under exploration amid ethical and regulatory considerations for future adoption planning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Recruiting complex medical patients

Barriers to identifying and referring eligible participants

Recruitment strategies and partnerships

Clinic screening and trained recruiter workflow

Future directions: AI chart search and ethical considerations

176 Innovation in Aging, 2025, Vol. 9, No. S2 We encountered difficulties recruiting a hard to identify group—those with AD and cancer. We initially recruited through newspaper, social media, and public transportation advertisements as well as community health fairs and organizations with low yield. We partnered with clinicians in oncology and dementia-specialty practices but experienced challenges obtaining referrals even with our staff embedded in the clinic. Developing relationships with community centers and retirement communities with memory care facilities supported recruitment of individuals with solely AD or cancer. To reach the AD and cancer group, we finally partnered with cancer clinical trials office recruitment coordinators. With trained recruiters systematically reviewing clinic schedules and proactively approaching individuals meeting screening criteria, our rates of study participants with both AD and cancer increased (0.24/month to 2.26/ month). These recruiters are trained for empathy and compassion in recruitment and informed consent. This group also has access to artificial intelligence (AI) chart search tools that are being developed; these tools have not yet been utilized as we explore the ethical and regulatory challenges of AI in recruitment. While our approach included a specialty recruitment service, this proactive clinic screening approach could be modified and replicated by teams in the future to reach difficult to recruit medical populations. We have also theorized reasons for this recruitment difficulty such as concern for comfort and caregiver burden that can be considered as part of future recruitment planning. Abstract citation ID: igaf122.586 RECRUITING COMPLEX MEDICAL PATIENTS: LESSONS FROM A STUDY OF PAIN IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND CANCER Jeffrey Boon1, Michelle Crum2, Jennifer Moon3, Ronald Cowan4, and Todd Monroe1, 1. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States, 2. The Ohio State University College of Nursing, Columbus, Ohio, United States, 3. The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, Ohio, United States, 4. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Department of Psychiatry, Memphis, Tennessee, United States We are conducting a study on pain differences among people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cancer, and both AD and cancer.

FAQs

What recruitment challenge did the study face with the AD-and-cancer population?

Identifying and recruiting participants who had both Alzheimer’s disease and cancer was hard, with referral difficulties even when staff were embedded in clinics.

Which strategies increased enrollment for participants with both AD and cancer?

Partnering with cancer clinical trials recruitment coordinators and using trained recruiters to systematically review clinic schedules and proactively approach individuals meeting screening criteria increased enrollment rates.

How are AI tools related to the study’s future recruitment plans?

The study notes developing AI chart search tools that have not yet been used, as ethical and regulatory challenges of AI in recruitment are still being explored.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Marglet