SWOG’s Recruitment & Retention Committee: Members Wanted

SWOG’s recruitment and retention committee (RRC) is the group’s go-to resource for expertise in recruiting patients to our trials and retaining them once they’ve joined. 

The RRC started as a core team in 2014 and was elevated in 2016 to a formal research support committee. The committee’s chair since 2020 is Allison Caban-Holt, PhD, working with staff liaison Jamie Sundstrom, SWOG’s recruitment and retention specialist.

Recently, Dr. Caban-Holt and the committee have been hard at work reconsidering how the committee can best achieve its core mission.

That mission, broadly, is to increase enrollment to SWOG trials by

• consulting with study chairs on protocol-specific strategies for enrolling and retaining participants,
• building a recruitment and retention toolbox SWOG members can draw from for help with trials,
• designing and helping execute recruitment initiatives for specific trials, including catchment area planning and strategizing to ensure trial enrollment is representative of the broader patient population,
• collaborating with – and providing consulting expertise for – other committees, and
• developing and contributing to publications that document lessons learned.

The RRC is now looking for new members across the full range of clinical research roles and experience levels. SWOG members interested in growing trial enrollment and expanding access to clinical research are invited to apply.

The RRC is reorganizing itself around a subcommittee-based structure, allowing members to join individual working groups aligned with their specific interests and experience. These groups are described in more detail on the website, but here’s a brief rundown.

• An education subcommittee develops training resources and webinars (including the Take Action Symposia hosted at group meetings), as well as tools to strengthen recruitment practices across SWOG.
   
• An accrual subcommittee identifies enrollment challenges, reviews recruitment plans, and measures impact.
   
• A protocol development studio provides consultation services for trial concepts in the early stages of development, helping to make enrollment more feasible from the get-go and to lower accrual barriers.
   

The committee also convenes ad hoc working groups as needed to address specific issues or challenges that arise. 

The first of these ad hoc teams is the retention working group, dedicated to strengthening participant retention across SWOG trials. Working group members can help identify barriers to completion of a trial and develop materials and recommendations for study teams.

If any or all of the above piques your interest and you think you have something to contribute, please consider applying. You can do so by completing a short membership survey.

You can read more about the committee and its subcommittee opportunities on the RRC page on swog.org [member login required]. And if you still have questions, you can also reach out to RRC@swog.org. 

Rapid and broad participant enrollment is key to success in any clinical trial. The RRC helps us get there, and it’s working hard to develop ways to do that even more effectively.