Increasing recruitment of patients in stroke prevention trials

PRIME-RESTART: Promoting Recruitment using Information Management Efficiently (PRIME) for randomised controlled trials of secondary prevention after stroke, piloted using the REstart or STop Antithrombotics Randomised Trial (RESTART)

Professor Rustam Al Shahi Salman and colleagues from the University of Edinburgh have been awarded a grant to test the PRIME recruitment strategy in the BHF-funded RESTART trial. RESTART is a trial testing whether recommencing antiplatelet drugs (which prevent blood clots) is beneficial in people who were previously prescribed these drugs but have now stopped taking them because of a brain bleed (brain haemorrhage). The PRIME recruitment strategy consists of training stroke physicians to regularly extract lists of potentially suitable people who could participate in the RESTART trial and asking these people to take part in the trial. If PRIME boosts recruitment, RESTART will be completed faster, which will reduce costs and find the answer to this question quicker. PRIME could also be used by other UK stroke prevention trials to help recruit participants faster, which could accelerate progress in stroke research by ensuring that these trials complete in good time.