What drives the cost of physician outreach?
- How many physicians you reach. A rare disease study may need a few dozen specialists; a primary care condition may need hundreds.
- How often you reach them. One letter is easy to miss. Repeated, study specific contact is what moves physicians to act.
- Which channels. Direct mail, email, LinkedIn, and phone each carry different costs.
- Tracking and handoff. Knowing which physicians engaged, and routing referrals to the coordinator quickly.
What does TrialNotice charge?
| Plan | Physicians under outreach | Letters per month | Price per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focused | 100 | 200 | $1,850 |
| Core | 500 | 1,000 | $3,750 |
| Scale | 1,000 | 2,000 | $6,250 |
Every plan covers one active study at one site on a four month renewable contract, and includes direct mail costs, email and LinkedIn follow up, recipient level QR tracking, CRM access, notifications, calendar integration, and coordinator support (TrialNotice).
How does that compare with doing it in house?
The main in house cost is staff time. In one trial across 25 general practices, recruitment took 3.7 staff hours per randomized patient on average (PMC). Building a physician list, writing and mailing letters, following up, and tracking engagement for hundreds of physicians adds up quickly for a coordinator who also runs study visits.
How does it compare with advertising?
A meta analysis found online recruitment cost $72 per enrollee versus $199 for offline methods, while offline methods converted better in 69% of studies that compared conversion (JMIR). Ads and physician outreach do different jobs, which is why most sites benefit from both. See physician referrals vs Facebook ads.
What does the breakeven look like?
Illustrative example: if one completed patient is worth $8,000 in your study budget, a four month Focused plan ($7,400) pays for itself with one randomized patient. The real question is the expected referral yield for your protocol, which depends on how many local physicians manage your study population. See how to calculate recruitment ROI.
Who should pay for it?
Ideally the sponsor. In SCRS's 2024 survey, 53% of sites said they regularly pay for recruitment from their own funds (SCRS). Ask for physician outreach as a funded recruitment line during budget negotiation. See how to negotiate a clinical trial budget.
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 TrialNoticeSources
- TrialNotice published pricing
- "Site specific factors associated with clinical trial recruitment efficiency in general practice settings," PMC
- Brøgger Mikkelsen M. et al., "Online Patient Recruitment in Clinical Trials: Systematic Review and Meta Analysis," Journal of Medical Internet Research
- SCRS 2024 Global Site Landscape results, Site Solutions Summit
- Applied Clinical Trials, "Tufts CSDD Study Explores Low Recruitment Rates"
