AI-Driven Patient Recruitment Strategies

Vijitha Uppuluri

Abstract: Patient recruitment has been one of the significant issues that have affected clinical research for the following reasons: Over 80% of the trials suffer delays in the recruitment of patients for the clinical trials, and 30% of the trials do not recruit patients at all. The conventional methods of recruiting patients are from word of reference from doctors, newspaper, and television advertisements, as well as manual searches through patient's records are not only time consuming but also have low return rates. Overall, recruitment has been one of the most significant challenges that companies have been facing, particularly due to the high costs involved in the process and time-consuming methods such as referrals and word-of-mouth recruitment. This paper discusses the concepts, approaches and practical use of AI technologies in patient recruitment platforms. These systems use Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and Explainable AI (XAI) technologies, self-learn clinical trial eligibility criteria, search structured and unstructured Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and match eligible patients in real time. ACTES, for instance, generates significant increases in recruitment rate, precise matching, and clinician satisfaction compared to TrialGPT. Similarly, incorporating AI with the Decentralized Clinical Trial (DCT) model opens participation to other underserved patients. However, issues like algorithmic bias, data privacy issues, and generalized use across different healthcare systems exist. The paper highlights the future interests below, where federal learning, synthetic data generation, and conformity with global policies should be attained to ensure AI applications' safety, ethics, and value in clinical trial recruitment.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Patient Recruitment, Clinical Trials, Machine Learning, Electronic Health Records (EHR), Natural Language Processing (NLP)