TDNet Discover

The purpose of this action research study was to investigate the resource-based barriers to patient recruitment for Black Caribbean populations at CaribVita Trials LLC. The study was prompted by a persistent 20% to 30% recruitment shortfall that threatened the sustainability of the firm’s oncology clinical trial portfolio. Utilizing the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Nonaka’s SECI framework, this research sought to determine how the reallocation of $50,000 from traditional digital marketing toward community-integrated trust brokers could serve as a rare and inimitable organizational resource. The methodology followed a ten-week action research cycle involving semi-structured interviews with executive and frontline personnel and the implementation of the Project Resilience pilot. The results indicated that social capital and localized ecclesiastical outreach are primary drivers for overcoming medical mistrust and improving enrollment velocity in decentralized clinical trials. The study concludes that a shift from commodity-based digital outreach to a high-touch, community-centric engagement model provides a defensible competitive advantage. These findings offer a scalable framework for organizations seeking to achieve enrollment equity in high-context cultural environments.