Patient (Self)Recruitment

Patient (Self)Recruitment : "By volunteering their own personal health records, patients can be matched to clinical trials. Here is how breast cancer patients did just that. Dr. Esserman described her clinical work in the area of breast cancer and the recognition that patients themselves could be the source for electronic health records (EHR). Once collected, these records could be used to match patients to clinical trials. In other words, the EHR becomes the source of data for patient recruitment. The concept became reality through the creation of the BreastCancerTrials.org web site created for the greater San Francisco and Sacramento area. With little, if any, marketing, the site became a successful destination for breast cancer patients and proved that EHR data could be collected and used without violating HIPAA regulations. Through a collaboration with NCI, it also became possible to perform patient screening against open clinical trials."