She has never referred a single one.

This is not because she opposes clinical research. She co-authored two publications last year. It is not because she is unaware of your study — the principal investigator mentioned it at a departmental meeting six months ago. It is because nobody has ever made it easy for her to refer. Nobody has given her a one-page summary she can review in the 90 seconds between patients. Nobody has explained the eligibility criteria in language that maps to her clinical decision-making. Nobody has told her what happens after she sends a patient your way — whether she will hear back, whether her patient will still be under her care, whether the study treatment will interact with the medications she has prescribed.

The gap between awareness and action in physician referral is almost never about willingness. It is about friction. And eliminating that friction — systematically, professionally, and within ethical boundaries — is one of the most powerful recruitment strategies a coordinator can deploy.

This lesson teaches you how to build referral networks that produce sustained enrollment, how to extend those networks into the community through partnerships with advocacy organizations and health centers, and how to navigate the ethical boundaries that govern referral relationships.

She has never referred a single one.

This is not because she opposes clinical research. She co-authored two publications last year. It is not because she is unaware of your study — the principal investigator mentioned it at a departmental meeting six months ago. It is because nobody has ever made it easy for her to refer. Nobody has given her a one-page summary she can review in the 90 seconds between patients. Nobody has explained the eligibility criteria in language that maps to her clinical decision-making. Nobody has told her what happens after she sends a patient your way — whether she will hear back, whether her patient will still be under her care, whether the study treatment will interact with the medications she has prescribed.

The gap between awareness and action in physician referral is almost never about willingness. It is about friction. And eliminating that friction — systematically, professionally, and within ethical boundaries — is one of the most powerful recruitment strategies a coordinator can deploy.

This lesson teaches you how to build referral networks that produce sustained enrollment, how to extend those networks into the community through partnerships with advocacy organizations and health centers, and how to navigate the ethical boundaries that govern referral relationships.