Site Selection

Best Practices for Site Selection

1. Evaluate the demographic profile

-Use national or regional data to get a better sense of the institution's surrounding communities

-Look up racial-ethnic and gender breakdown of admitted patients in order to make reasonable projections

-Evaluate each site’s feasibility to enroll

• Use ICD-9 codes
• Get with the Guidelines metrics
• Real time experience

2. Discuss past recruitment practices

- Speak with each site's research staff to better understand their recruitment/retention past successes and failures

- Your conversation ought to include available resources of potential sites (e.g., staffing or facilities)

- It is beneficial to clearly articulate one's expectations and milestones

3. Explore potential sites’ competing trials

Both parties should be able to speak openly about any competing trials and how the site would handle it (e.g., competition of trial participants and resources)

4. Team Structure

-A strong site consists of more than just one individual

-The most effective research teams will meet at least once a week