From National Mac & Cheese Day to the broken economics of centralized recruitment… this Sticky Notes episode goes from nonsense to nuclear takes on how sites really handle patient recruitment.

Denali and Brad dig into why so many sites are drowning in bad referrals, buried in tools, and still treating recruitment like a side quest instead of a core competency. They challenge the idea that sponsors and central vendors should own recruitment, and make the case that sites need to embrace what this really is: a sales process for motivated patients that can absolutely be done ethically.

We get into:
– The reality of central campaigns, garbage referrals, and "anyone will click anything" ads
– Why sites complain about recruitment but won't invest dedicated people or time into it
– Site-owned tech vs sponsor tech sprawl (four logins just to pre-screen? really?)
– Personalized patient navigation: what it should actually look like at the site level
– How AI might help pre-screening… and where patients instantly check out
– The ethics of "selling" clinical trials without becoming a used car salesperson
– Why high-performing sites should get more of the recruitment budget and leads

Plus:
– A cash-pay surgery center in Oklahoma City that might be the perfect research partner
– Mac and cheese supremacy, Bastille Day, shark awareness, and why bugs are the enemy
– Why coordinators shouldn't be forced to moonlight as sales reps

If you run or work at a clinical research site, this one will either make you mad, motivated, or both.

Want more unfiltered conversations about clinical trial operations, sites, and industry nonsense?
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