In a new article published by International Clinical Trials (ICT), Lindsay Van Pelt, MD, Chief Medical Advisor at Lightship, examines an often-overlooked driver of clinical trial dropout: the distance participants must travel to study sites.
Drawing on peer-reviewed research and her experience as a physician and investigator, Dr. Van Pelt makes the case that geographic burden shouldn’t stop being a consideration once a participant enrolls. Long travel times can add up over months or years, creating a cumulative burden that engagement programs alone can’t address.
Her article explores how home visits, virtual assessments, and community-based collection points can help reduce that burden and why flexibility should be considered during protocol design, before a trial’s structural conditions are fixed.
Read the full article to explore the retention case for flexible trial delivery.