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Boosting Research Study Participation & Retention: Research participant recruitment and retention

This guide covers research participant recruitment and retention.

Compensation Flexibility Matters

Research study participation and engagement is one of the biggest challenges when conducting trials and research studies. Recruiting and retaining participants is essential for high-quality results in medical trials, academic research, and market studies.Compensation payment is an often-overlooked aspect that significantly affects study participation and success.

Gift cards · Prepaid cards · Direct payments · Merchandise · Charity · Swag

IN CONTEXT

Why research participant recruitment and retention matters

How compensation is delivered can have a significant impact on recruitment, retention, and overall study engagement.Payment flexibility improves participation rates, satisfaction, and data reliability.

Research Compensation Choices

IN DETAIL

The Changing Clinical Trial Landscape

Clinical trials are evolving with a greater focus on participant-centricity, more competitive recruitment, and stronger diversity goals. Participants now expect trials to be convenient, respectful, and rewarding. As recruitment grows more challenging, and the need for inclusive representation increases, adapting to these changes is essential for running successful, credible studies.

Increased Focus on Participant-Centricity

Patient-centricity in clinical trials has increased, with sponsors involving patients in the design process to ensure trials align with participants’ needs and preferences. Quanticate

Globalization

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IN DETAIL

Recruitment pressure and rising participant expectations

Globalization in clinical trials expands access to diverse populations, accelerates innovation, and enhances data reliability by incorporating varied demographics. Charles Darwin University

More Competitive Recruitment Environment

Recruiting participants for clinical trials is highly competitive, with approximately 85% of trials failing to enroll enough patients, leading to significant delays. Parexel

Rising Participant Expectations

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IN DETAIL

Inclusive recruitment and sponsor efficiency

Clinical trial participants increasingly expect personalized care, transparency, convenience, and technological integration, prompting sponsors to adopt participant-centric approaches to enhance recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. WCG

More Diverse and Inclusive Recruitment Goals

“Diversity Action Plans to Improve Enrollment of Participants from Underrepresented Populations in Clinical Studies.” (FDA) Draft Guidance

Cost Efficiency for Sponsors

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IN DETAIL

Modernizing participant payments and compensation

Clinical trial sponsors increasingly focus on cost efficiency by leveraging automation, reducing manual processes, and optimizing resource allocation. MedCity News

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IN DETAIL

Aligning Payments with Participant Expectations

Participants expect payments to be convenient, fast, and flexible, reflecting the modern digital payment experiences they encounter in everyday life. Compensation that is delayed or restricted due to limited and inflexible payment options can lead to frustration, decreased trust, and even lower participation rates in research studies.

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IN DETAIL

Rethinking Research Compensation Methods

Research study payments have traditionally been sent to participants through outdated methods such as paper checks, bank transfers with long processing times, and often, mailed gift cards. More recent efforts moved these into the online realm.Traditional payment options often introduce frustrating delays, leaving participants waiting days and weeks to receive their compensation. For many, especially those in lower-income demographics, delays can be more than an inconvenience and become a barrier to participation altogether.More recent digital methods of research compensation struggled to overcome these issues. Unfortunately, these “digital” attempts are often inflexible and burdensome as well. They may become costly and off-putting towards a segment of participants, particularly those in underserved and un-banked populations. Payment choices may not align with the banking preferences of all participants.Compensation issues quickly become customer service problems. Too often research study administrators and professionals are forced to spend valuable time investigating payment issues, answering complaints and trying to ensure that payments are made.

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IN DETAIL

Mix it up - Let Recipients Select Multiple Options

When it comes to clinical trial payments, mixing it up can make a big difference in participant satisfaction. Did you know you can actually mix and match payment options? Participants don’t have to choose just one way to receive their rewards. For example, they might want to split their payment—using part of it for a study-related shirt or cap, donating a portion to a related charity, and putting the rest onto a gift card or even transferring it directly to their bank account. Offering this kind of flexibility not only makes the experience more personal and rewarding for participants but can also boost engagement and retention throughout the study.Study related logowear or SWAGDentate to a related charityAdd to their Bank, Debit Card or select a gift card

Recipients can select multiple items from a single delivery!

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IN DETAIL

Compensation Flexibility

Payment flexibility is important to successful study outcomes. Offering participants multiple payment options including direct deposits, digital wallets, and instant prepaid cards as well as other choices improves their experience. When participants feel valued and receive their compensation quickly, they are more likely to complete studies, provide honest feedback, and engage in future research opportunities.Let’s look at why payment flexibility is essential in research studies, how traditional payment methods create unnecessary friction, and what researchers can do to implement participant-friendly payment solutions that drive engagement and retention.

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IN DETAIL

Downsides of Traditional Participant Payments

Manual Processes

Traditional payment methods like mailed checks and debit cards often involve long processing times. Research participants may often wait days or weeks to receive compensation. The delay can be discouraging, particularly for those who require prompt payments to enable participation. Payment accessibility may be an issue for a segment of the research population. A limited menu of compensation choices, such as bank checks or funds transfers, may not be accessible to all participants. Those who do not have bank accounts or are unfamiliar with digital payment options may face unnecessary hurdles in accessing compensation. Traditional compensation methods are often time consuming. Manual processing of payments, including validating participant details, issuing checks, and handling payment disputes may add significant administrative work for research teams. This may divert valuable time away from recruiting efforts and from conducting the study itself.

HIPAA

Security and privacy compliance is a requirement for most health-related studies covered by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.)Protected Health Information (PHI) includes names, email address and phone numbers (as well as other identifying information) that can identify that an individual is part of a specific research trial. De-identification protocols in manual systems often lack safeguards and don’t properly decouple recipient identification from the study. PHI information may be inadvertently exposed to staff beyond just the Principal Investigators in the study, allowing unnecessary and uncontrolled spread of HIPAA-protected data. TruCentive makes it simple to maintain HIPAA compliance by keeping PHI data at the PI or Study Coordinator level. This keeps participant ID’s available for accounting and tax purposes yet avoids PHI data sprawl through out the organization. This limits the amount of individuals exposed to sensative data the the related costs of HIPAA compliance training and audits.

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IN DETAIL

The Benefits of Payment Flexibility

Speed matters when it comes to research compensation. Participants are more likely to engage in studies when they know compensation is prompt. Fast payment options, such as digital wallets or prepaid debit cards, end the frustration of waiting days or weeks for a check to arrive or for a bank transfer. Faster compensation enhances participant satisfaction and builds trust, increasing the likelihood that individuals will complete the study and participate in future research.

Multiple Payment Options

No single payment arrangement can meet all participants’ needs. A one-size-fits-all approach to payments does not work. Multiple payment options and choices ensure that participants can receive compensation in the way that best fits their needs. Some participants may prefer direct deposit for seamless bank transfers, while others may find digital wallets like PayPal or Venmo more convenient. Prepaid debit cards or gift cards provide solutions for those who are unbanked or prefer alternative financial tools. Merchandise or logo ware may be used as well.

By expanding payment options, and providing choices, research teams make their studies more accessible and user-friendly to a wider audience.

Participant Choice

Flexibility in payment methods directly improves the participant experience. When individuals have the option to choose how they receive their compensation, they feel more valued and in control of the process. Flexibility can reduce frustration, increase engagement, and improve retention rates. A participant-centric approach to payments makes research studies more attractive and strengthens long-term participation rates.

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IN DETAIL

Why It Matters

TruCentive reduces compensation costs through incentive automation. Administrative overhead is cut, and participant satisfaction is increased through faster delivery of compensation, while maintaining compliance.TruCentive has returned unclaimed and forgotten payment leading to significant savings in research costs reflecting a careful stewardship of research funds. Diverse Compensation Choices

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IN DETAIL

Flexible Payments in Research Studies

Flexible payments let organizations choose which methods of compensation to offer study participants as well as how much flexibility and choice to offer. Organizations can limit payment preferences for participants in specific studies based on specific policy and regulatory considerations. These preferences are study-specific and are easily varied from study to study. Studies can offer a complete catalog of choices or combine any number of different payment options to curate an appropriate selection for a given study population. Here are examples of available payment choices*:Direct Payments:Direct to a bank account (Automated Clearing House, ACH), and Direct to recipient debit card.Digital Wallets:PayPal, Venmo, CashAppDigital Prepaid Cards:Visa, Mastercard, and AMEX prepaid cards in both digital and physical formats. Physical cards may be purchased in bulk or requested sent to individuals, with individuals entering their own physical delivery address.Reloadable Prepaid Card:Reloadable card prepaid debit card. Many reloadable debit cards draw down value quickly when not used.

Many options in the market draw down as much as $4.50 per month after 3 months of inactivity. As a contrast, TruCentive’s reloadable card options currently do not draw down on card value until after 12 months of inactivity.Specialty Prepaid Cards:Limited to specific purchase options (gas, groceries, etc.)Merchant Restricted Prepaid Cards:Limited payments to the specific organizations, departments, or study-specific retailers. Example 1: Facility parking garage, gift shop, and cafeteria only. Example 2: Car service, local merchants, and campus stores only. (Value Added Service)US National Brand Gift Cards:Over 1000 Popular retail brand options.Local Gift Cards:More than 100,000 local retailers across the US.International Gift Cards:Over 21,000 gift card options in 250+ countries and territories.Physical Checks:Physical Checks are delivered via USPS or FedEx.Logowear:Studies may include custom-designed clothing, cups, mugs, bags, etc.

to the mix of choices for participants to allow studies to show thanks and/or build a sense of community around a study, or the study sponsor or research institution.Merchandise:Studies may offer physical merchandise as part of their collections. TruCentive offers merchandise from Amazon and BestBuy with no added shipping or markups.* We’re always adding new choices. Selections may change over time. Check with your representative and in the application for current choices.

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IN DETAIL

Enhancing Research Participation Through Payment Flexibility

Participant compensation plays an important role in research study success, influencing engagement, retention, and data quality.Traditional payment methods, such as paper checks and slow bank transfers, often create frustrating delays that discourage participation, particularly for lower-income and unbanked populations. Even more contemporary digital payment solutions can be inflexible and burdensome, leading to administrative challenges and participant dissatisfaction.Offering multiple payment options, including direct deposits, digital wallets, and prepaid cards among many choices can make it easier for participants to receive compensation quickly and conveniently.Payment flexibility helps research teams improve participant trust, streamline administrative processes, and boost study outcomes while supporting compliance and cost efficiency. Design Your Own Engagement Incentives

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Incentive delivery that means more and costs less

Unclaimed rewards returned, always. Build a complete project in the campaign builder with your logo, your recipients, and your incentive selections, then send. Related reading: research participant payments, research participant compensation.

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