Physician referrals

How to build a physician referral network for your research site

By TrialNotice · Updated
Research coordinator carrying a folder walking up the steps of a brick medical practice on a spring street
Short answerBuild a referral network by mapping the physicians near your site who treat your study populations, sending each one study specific information, making referral one step, and reporting back on every referral. Sites that do this over time can make community physicians their top patient source, as a Connecticut neurology research site did.

What is a physician referral network?

A group of local physicians who know your site, understand your studies, and send patients when one fits. Unlike a single campaign, a network carries over from study to study. A Connecticut neurology research site built one over several years, and community clinicians became its top source of new patient referrals (Applied Clinical Trials).

Step one: map the physicians

List every specialist and relevant primary care physician within realistic driving distance, using the free CMS NPPES registry. Prioritize community practices: physicians in clinical practice are 2.7 times more likely to refer than those in hospital settings (Tufts CSDD). See how to find specialists near your site.

Step two: give them study specific information

Physicians refer less than 0.2% of their patients into trials (Getz), mostly because they lack study information and time (Tufts CSDD). Send a one page summary for each active study, not a general brochure about the site.

Step three: make referral one step

Give a named coordinator with a direct line. The Connecticut site's advice is to make referring as simple as possible for practices (Applied Clinical Trials).

Step four: report back on every referral

The same case study recommends thanking the physician for every referral, explaining why an ineligible patient did not qualify, sending precautions and exclusionary medications when a patient enrolls, and updating the physician at milestones (Applied Clinical Trials). Nearly 30% of physicians say they never hear back after referring (Tufts CSDD). Doing this well is how a site stands out.

Step five: grow it study by study

A Phase 1 unit that engaged community physicians around a memory clinic grew its network by 30 physicians within a 20 mile radius in one year (Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease). Each new study is a reason to contact the network again and to add the specialists that study needs.

Get your study in front of the right local physicians

TrialNotice builds a physician referral pipeline around one active study. We identify relevant local physicians within driving distance of your site, send study aligned direct mail, follow up by email and LinkedIn, track engagement with recipient level QR codes, and route warm responses into your site team's workflow.

Talk to TrialNotice

Sources

  1. Applied Clinical Trials, "Building a Physician Referral Network: A Case Study"
  2. Applied Clinical Trials, "Tufts CSDD Study Explores Low Recruitment Rates"
  3. Ken Getz, Applied Clinical Trials, "Rebooting the Statistic That 5% of Eligible Patients Participate in Clinical Trials"
  4. Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease abstract on a memory clinic within a Phase 1 unit
  5. CMS NPPES NPI Registry

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