Gathering a number of people to volunteer to have a needle jabbed in their arm is not an easy task but Richmond Pharmacology has the experience and team work that allows them to pool all resources and get the job completed within a short time frame. This is where true Patient Recruitment is vital.

Immunisations usually require the whole process to be conducted within 3 short months. The World Health Organisation specifies which strains need to be tested, the manufacturer produces the trial samples, the volunteers are vaccinated and the results are examined. Large quantities of the vaccine are then produced and sent out on a global scale.

For the study on the influenza virus, Richmond Pharmacology was approached to complete all 65 required trial immunisations within one day. To reduce a bias towards any age group or either sex, there had to be a 50:50 split between all categories of volunteers. The task included 32 subjects aged between 18-60 and 35 over 60 years of age.

The challenge was not to gather volunteers, as the company has a database of 8,000, but to ensure that all tests were completed within the allocated appointments between 7.30am and 6.30pm. One and a half times the required number of volunteers were enlisted to cover no shows, cancellations and screening failures.

‘We understood that processing such a high volume of screening and subsequent enrolment appointments in one day required very strict co-ordination between several of our teams, including the research physicians, nursing staff, clinical trial assistants, nursing staff and the recruitment team’, a company spokesperson stated.

Volunteers were provided with reading material and an in-house kitchen that served sandwiches and beverages. This hospitality from Richmond Pharmacology has encouraged people to return and continue volunteering their services for the wider community and on a global scale.

Teamwork at Richmond Pharmacology is what drives their study success. Every person involved in the study is equally important as the Project Manager. Without everyone working together, the study timeframes and budgets would not be met.

‘It was a full-on day, but with everyone pulling together it ran smoothly, to the satisfaction of all involved but especially to the onsite Independent Monitors working on behalf of the sponsor company’, a company spokesperson stated.

Volunteers were so pleased with their involvement in the study and their treatment on the day that all 65 subjects returned on day 21 to be examined for vaccine effectiveness.

‘It is often the personal touch created by regular communication that ensures that volunteers return as scheduled and return again in the future to participate in other studies’, a company spokesperson stated.

Studies such as these and other QTC Studies allow numerous professionals and community minded people to help in the fight against common illnesses such as influenza and possible even save people’s lives.

‘We had the chance to be part of something we had not done before and this coupled with the fact that we were able to very quickly see the effect of our work on the general population made this a very satisfying challenge for all concerned’, a company spokesperson said.