Tis The Season (Not) To Recruit: Seasonal Changes In Physician Availability
We’ve all been there. The study parameters have been finalised. The discussion guide is signed off. The screener is programmed and ready to go. You hit send and…nothing. No responses. Yet three months earlier for a similar study, you had plenty of physicians eager to take part in your research. So what changed? Let us dive in to some of the seasonal recruitment patterns we have spotted here at Mr Doctor.
The Usual Culprits
As with most market research, there are some common ‘dead zones’ where recruitment is typically challenging. The holiday season (late November - early January) and the back-to-school rush (end of August) are naturally challenging recruitment spots across Europe and the US.
More uniquely to physicians, Changeover day (UK) and the start of residency programs (US) see doctors tied up with orientations and inductions, leaving less time for research engagement. These take place the first Wednesday in August (UK) and June/July (US)
Conference Chaos
Unless you are planning an in-person study at the conference, it is best to avoid recruitment in and around conferences as physicians are often preoccupied with travelling, preparing and attending. The timings of these vary across specialty but some key conferences include:
Interventional Radiologists: CIRSE (September), SIR (March/April), GEST (May)
Vascular Surgeons: VEITH (November), CX (April), ESVS (September/October)
Interventional Cardiologists: TCT (October), ESC (August/September), ACC (March/April)
Neurointerventionalists: ESMINT (September), SNIS (July), LINNC (June)
Recruitment ‘Sweet Spots’
So now you know some of the more challenging time to recruit, when are the more optimal recruitment periods? Over our years in recruitment, several notable time frames have emerged time and time again as recruitment ‘sweet spots’ - the prime times to engage physicians in your research:
New year, New Motivation: Recruiting after the holiday season (Late January - March) often means physicians are refreshed and not yet bogged down with conference prep - an excellent time to recruit.
Post-conference season: Depending on the specialty, this is typically late April - early June. Not only does this mean physicians are freed up from preparing for conferences but it also falls before the summer exodus and academic transitions, avoiding those trickier recruitment spots.
Post-summer momentum: Just after the summer break, before the holidays and before (or just after) major conferences is an excellent time to recruit. The optimum time to recruit depends on specialty (and when their major conferences fall), but this is typically between September - early November.
All in all, recruitment is a delicate dance, balancing the needs of the project with the fluctuating availability of physicians. We at Mr Doctor are well versed in this chorography, and are able to navigate the challenges fluidly, utilising our knowledge of the space to recruit successfully - whatever the project.
