The organization and the execution of clinical research is now the responsibility of CROs (clinical research organizations) and SMOs (site management organizations)

There are currently three methods on the market for recruiting patients:

• The research clinic (SMO) tries to find suitable patients for its research from its own database. The disadvantage of this method may be that these databases are not complete and can only contain previous patients from a given research clinic. Thus, they may not be able to provide the sufficient number of patients they would need to conduct the studies. This can greatly slow down the process and consume high costs.
• The CRO visits cooperating physicians near the clinic to reach the right number of patients. The disadvantage of this method may be that the request is made on a familiarity basis and that there is a lack of an IT system to support physicians that would make it easier to find the right patients.