Newton, Mass.-based patient recruitment company BBK Worldwide has created a new company division called the global mobilization team. The company stated that this division will help address the challenges of planning and deploying of resources for large-scale, global trials. BBK stated the division will include in-country staff with expertise in local patient recruitment, a web-based communication structure and real-time access to data essential for making changes in recruitment operations mid-trial.

"At one time, site support specialists were perceived as 'nice-to-haves,' until the industry realized that they made a big difference in enrollment, and then site support became standard practice. With the number of multinational trials on the rise, creating a sub-specialty in global mobilization is not just a nice thing to do - it's an industry imperative," stated Bonnie Brescia, co-founder and principal at BBK.

Waltham, Mass.-based CRO Parexel made a similar announcement about launching a global recruitment team called START – or Start-up and Accelerated Recruitment Team – which will use the company’s planning and recruitment tool called SPARC – or Scenario Planning and Recruitment Calculator.