Abstract A68: Awareness of ongoing clinical trial information: physicians' and clinical trial administrators' perspectives
Authors: Oliva Dariam Cardentey , Soto Jose M. , Wao Hesborn , Gwede Clement K. , Mhaskar Rahul 
Published: May 2015

Introduction: Evidence-based medical decision-making is the current standard for clinical practice. Evidence is obtained from clinical trials yet few patients participate in clinical trials due to numerous barriers encountered by patients. However, barriers faced by physicians have not been comprehensively investigated. This pilot study investigated information seeking behaviors of physicians and information dissemination strategies employed by clinical trial administrators (CTAs).

Methods: All attending physicians and CTAs at a public university in the southeast were eligible to participate in face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. Thematic content analysis using the constant comparative method yielded a priori themes regarding physicians' knowledge, attitude, behavior and barriers to information seeking about ongoing clinical trials and their perception regarding reliability of information obtained. Data were validated through peer debriefing.

Results: Sixteen physicians from nine specialties and three CTAs were interviewed (Family Medicine/Neurology 44%; &gt;20 years in practice 50%; seeing &gt;100 patients per month 56%). Almost half of the physicians did not actively search for information on ongoing trials in general and a majority of physicians do not actively search for information on trials conducted at their home institution, relying mostly on direct contact from CTAs through mass email and word-of-mouth. Of those who searched, a third admitted to only searching rarely. Most of the physicians who actively search rely on Google search and clinicaltrials.gov, but few used the institution's research website.

Half physicians interviewed felt that current trial advertising strategies are ineffective and disorganized, and cited time constraints as a reason why they do not search actively. Most physicians would prefer to have trial staff present trial information directly to them at staff meetings.

Most physicians rely on the reputation of the Principal Investigator and Institutional Review Board approval status to determine the reliability and sufficiency of the information they gather. Few physicians read the protocol of the study or verify the information given with outside sources.

Physicians who see more patients per month (&gt;100) tended to search less than those who see less patients per month. More experienced physicians (&gt; 20 years of practice) tended to search about the same as less experienced physicians.

Of the CTAs interviewed, most used mass emails, the institution's research website and physical newsletter advertisements to advertise trials. Most assessed the effectiveness of these strategies by reviewing patient enrollment. Most do not receive or seek feedback for their strategies from physicians.

Conclusion: Most physicians do not actively search for information on trials. There is a disconnect between the strategies desired by physicians and those employed by administrators. There is no assessment of the effectiveness of the advertisement strategies except for enrollment numbers. Most physicians do not use an independent search to verify the information that they have received. These findings have implications, not only for overall accrual to clinical trials but also for disparities in access to trials for medically underserved and racial ethnic minority patients who may not routinely seek out clinical trials on their own.

Citation Format: Dariam Cardentey Oliva, Jose M. Soto, Hesborn Wao, Clement K. Gwede, Rahul Mhaskar. Awareness of ongoing clinical trial information: physicians' and clinical trial administrators' perspectives. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A68. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-A68