Solving the Recruitment Bottleneck with Predictive Analytics

Patient recruitment remains the single most common cause of clinical trial delays. A substantial share of trials fail to meet enrollment timelines, driving up cost and delaying therapies for patients who need them. Predictive analytics offers a way forward. By modeling historical enrollment performance against site characteristics, patient demographics, and protocol complexity, research teams can identify the sites most likely to enroll efficiently — before activation. The same models can estimate realistic enrollment curves, replacing optimistic guesswork with data-grounded projections. Taragal Research applies these tools during feasibility and site selection, then monitors enrollment against predicted curves throughout the trial. When reality diverges from the model, teams intervene early rather than discovering a shortfall months later.