Accelerate Biotech Patient Recruitment with Smarter Site Selection
About this webinar
Early-phase clinical trials operate under compressed timelines, complex protocols, narrow eligibility criteria and limited patient populations, making even small delays disproportionately costly. For emerging biotech companies, where lean teams and critical development milestones heighten execution risk, traditional approaches to site feasibility and recruitment planning may no longer be sufficient. This webinar will explore how sponsors and CROs can improve enrollment predictability by integrating recruitment earlier into study design, protocol development, feasibility and site selection.
Evidence-based feasibility can reduce reliance on historical site performance and questionnaire-driven projections by incorporating recruitable patient populations, investigator experience, prior trial performance, startup timelines, competing studies, referral networks, infrastructure and protocol-specific capabilities. The featured speakers will discuss the unique considerations and requirements that distinguish early-phase site selection from later-phase studies.
The session will also examine the patient recruitment funnel and sources of attrition that occur well before enrollment. From diagnosis and referral through awareness, pre-screening, testing, consent, screening, enrollment and ongoing participation, each step can reduce the pool of recruitable patients. Protocol burden, eligibility requirements, travel, biomarker testing, physician referral barriers, perceptions of benefit-risk and competing care or trial options can all influence participation. Direct site and investigator insights can help identify these barriers and assess how well a protocol aligns with patients seen in clinical practice.
Attendees will learn how to optimize for enrollment velocity rather than site count, use real-time operational signals to course-correct and establish predefined triggers for intervention. This webinar will explore how recruitment intelligence can identify why referrals are not converting, where patients are being lost and when intervention is needed.
Connecting more predictable early-phase execution to safety and PK readouts, dose-escalation decisions, expansion planning, financing milestones and partnering strategy can help reduce uncertainty across the development timeline.
Register for this webinar to learn how patient recruitment can be integrated with feasibility and site selection to improve enrollment predictability in early-phase clinical trials.
Who should attend
- Clinical Research leaders and other professionals involved in the planning, execution and management of clinical trials
- Startup Leads
- Recruitment and Retention strategists
- Feasibility strategists
- Site staff
- Investigators/Site Coordinators and site personnel responsible for patient recruitment and engagement at clinical trial sites
- Patient advocates & communities
What you will learn
- Integrate recruitment earlier into protocol design, feasibility and site selection to anticipate barriers before enrollment begins
- Strengthen site selection using patient, investigator, referral and protocol-specific insights
- Improve enrollment performance by identifying recruitment friction, prioritizing high-potential sites and adapting quickly to emerging challenges
- Increase development predictability by aligning recruitment execution with critical clinical, financing and partnering milestones
Featured Speakers
Chris Morris
With 25 years of global clinical operations and drug development experience across CRO, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and consumer healthcare organizations, Chris brings deep expertise in patient-centric clinical trial delivery and digital innovation. Having joined PPD in 2021 and moved into Patient First Digital Solutions in 2022, Chris serves as an enterprise subject matter expert in decentralized and hybrid clinical trials. His experience includes strategic leadership of portfolios exceeding $200M and oversight of clinical trial budgets of more than $120M, with global program leadership across oncology, hematology, neuroscience, rare disease, pain, addiction and consumer health. He has led complex global studies, including an oncology program involving more than 1,000 patients across 250+ sites and advises sponsors and project teams on governance, risk, innovative trial design, patient recruitment and engagement and the effective use of digital and decentralized solutions.
Irina Strachkova
Irina serves as a Senior Patient Recruitment and Engagement Lead (PREL) on the Patient First DELIVERY Team at Thermo Fisher Scientific. With more than 13 years of clinical research experience, Irina specializes in patient recruitment and engagement for rare neurology and neuroimmunology clinical trials, with a particular focus on supporting biotech sponsors. In her role at Thermo Fisher Scientific, she partners with clinical development teams from early study planning through execution, translating patient pathways, epidemiology and operational insights into evidence-based recruitment strategies. Her expertise spans strategic feasibility, enrollment forecasting, recruitment planning and patient engagement for complex global studies. Irina holds a Master of Science degree in Veterinary Medicine and a Master of Arts degree in Digital Marketing and Social Media.
Lukasz Wiech
Lukasz Wiech, MD, MBA is a Physician with over 16 years of clinical experience. He graduated from the Medical University of Warsaw and holds an MBA from Kozminski University. He is also board certified in Public Health. From the beginning of his career, he has been actively involved in clinical research, gaining hands-on experience across all phases of clinical trials. He has held roles as an Investigator, Study Coordinator and Site Manager; working now as a Director Site Operations for Poland in Trialmed. His experience combines both clinical and operational leadership, with a strong track record in driving quality, compliance and site performance within complex research environments, while also supporting the development of junior colleagues as a mentor, driven by a strong passion for working with people and helping them grow both as a leader and as a colleague.
Partner for this event
The PPD clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
The PPD clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, enables customers to accelerate innovation and increase drug development productivity. Utilizing patient-centered strategies and data analytics, their capabilities cover multiple therapeutic areas and include early development, all phases of clinical development, peri- and post-approval, novel approaches to patient recruitment and investigator sites, and comprehensive laboratory services. Recognized as a global industry leader in accelerating promising medicines from early development through regulatory approval and market access, they serve pharma, biotech, medical device and government organizations with custom-tailored solutions, including full-service partnerships and functional service partnerships. As a strategic partner in clinical development and analytical services, they apply cutting edge technologies, therapeutic expertise and a firm commitment to quality to help customers deliver life-changing therapies.