[Group meetings for patient recruitment in clinical trial in pediatrics].

Recruitment of patients in a clinical trial is often difficult and probably more difficult in pediatrics where parents are asked to give the informed consent. In order to recruit infants in a randomized clinical trial we organized group meetings with families (4 to 40 at a time) in order to describe the study procedures: random allocation to treatment or placebo and double blind assessment, and ask them to allow their child to participate. All meetings were conducted by both a pediatrician and a RCT specialist. Parents asked questions about the effects of the drug, the evaluation process and the follow-up procedures. Forty nine % of all eligible infants participated in the study. The success rate was related to franc and open communication with the family, provided by highly qualified physicians.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes