Accrual Workshops

Interactive, case-based learning to enhance accrual

Our Accrual Workshops (AWs) are designed to engage investigators and research personnel in interactive, case-based learning activities proven to enhance accrual. These four-hour programs begin with the presentation of a compelling scientific story to educate the sites about the treatment landscape and the trial. Sites are then required to present case studies in order to identify appropriate patients for the trial. Each workshop concludes with a discussion of site-specific strategies to accelerate accrual. All Accrual Workshops are facilitated and moderated by one of our medical oncologists.

Site Recruitment

Based on research sites’ past accrual performance, they are categorized by DAVA as high, medium or low-accruing. DAVA targets an even distribution of accruing and non-accruing sites when planning an accrual workshop and limits the number of participating sites to 6-8 per program. This strategy allows high-performing sites to educate and motivate low-performing sites to enroll patients and engage everyone in the room.

Selected sites are recruited to attend the workshops by email invitations and phone calls by a DAVA Medical Oncologist and/or a DAVA Clinical Trial Specialist.

Case-based Learning

The confirmed sites are required to provide a site overview including accrual potential and two eligible case studies. The site attendees must present their site introduction, accrual potential and each of the case studies to their peers at the workshop. This interactive case-based learning approach identifies accrual challenges and solutions. The cases are active patients being followed at each site and include treatment history and present conditions. Patient eligibility is discussed in an interactive peer-to-peer manner. These discussions reinforce the protocol eligibility requirements and make the protocol ‘real’ to the investigators. In addition, the peer-to-peer interactions stimulate discussions about many different aspects of the protocol and often result in identification of potential patients.

Impact of DAVA Accrual Workshops

The impact of the DAVA Accrual Workshops is evaluated by comparing the number of patients enrolled 120 days before and after the workshops by investigators who attended the meetings. Our poster that was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in 2009 shows that 15 DAVA Accrual Workshops conducted in four different tumor types had a significant impact on enrollment ranging from 16% to 1100%. These investigator-focused Accrual Workshops are a successful tool designed to simplify the protocol, identify eligible patients, and accelerate enrollment to oncology clinical trials.