3% of Physician Participate in Clinical Research

In this episode of Dr. Doctor, we dive into one of the most overlooked challenges in healthcare and clinical research — access.

Only 3% of physicians participate in clinical research, leaving 97% disconnected from trials. At the same time, less than 5% of eligible patients ever enroll in a clinical study. These aren’t isolated statistics — they are directly connected.

When physicians aren’t engaged in research, patients never hear about opportunities that could change or even save their lives.

We break down what’s really driving these numbers, why patient enrollment continues to lag, and how physician awareness and access play a critical role in closing the gap.

This conversation isn’t just about research — it’s about access, equity, and the future of healthcare delivery.

If we want better outcomes, we have to build better systems.

Tune in as we connect the dots between physicians, patients, and clinical trials — and discuss what it will take to move the industry forward.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good evening. On this episode of Doctor Doctor, we're talking all things statistics. The statistics we'll be covering today are actually staggering. Excited to bring to light some of the what I consider gaps in clinical research and start to talk about how we can bridge this gap and figure out what we can do about it. The first stat I'd like to share with you is only 3% of physicians actually participate in clinical research. As of 2024 and 2025, there are over 1.8 million licensed physicians in the United States, which leaves 1.1 million that are actually considered active physicians. That's 851,000, 282 that have direct patient care, and there's 535,000 primary care physicians. Now basically, what all this means is as it pertains to clinical research and trial participation per the FDA, only 3% are participating. That is the gap, and that's what I would like to begin to discuss. One of the things we're working on is creating a physician partnership program where, as you are a physician and you're practicing primary care, clinical research can be something that you can do that's supplementary, where you're only required, you know, four to 12 hours a week that you can do at a schedule that's conducive to your already physician schedule. So that's one of the things we're working on. Another statistic I'd like to share is only one in 25 physicians participate in clinical research. So of that stat stat, of that statistic we just shared, of the 1 million that are active, only one in 25 of those are participating. Again, um per the Tufts CSDD impact report in May of 2022, they say lack of access to physician networks limits patient enrollment. Again, this is what I'm talking about regarding these are the gaps. For years we've been talking about that the issue is 80% of enrollment fails. Well, one of the reasons enrollment is failing is because the physicians aren't participating. And when it comes to clinical research, the participants trust their physician to give them the information. Um, as it pertains to academic versus community participation, academic participation is much higher at 24%, where community participation participation is more around 8%. In between 2018 and 2020, there were 37,596 active principal investigators. Thank you. I just want to say thank you. Every single one of those physicians had to do something to make sure that medicine kept advancing. And I just want to take time to say thank you to all of you. Um, one of the last statistics I want to talk about is less than 5% of eligible patients participate in clinical research, which means 95% of eligible patients do not even enroll in a trial. So this statistic came from the NIH. They say most participants who participate in clinical trials do so because their healthcare provider told them about it. So having said that, the gap is if only 3% of our physicians participate, and how we get the message to them is from our physicians, that's what I want to work on. So that is my ask. Everyone has an ask. That's my ask. Please ask your physician about clinical research and if they're participating. If they are or not, we have something for them. Um, you know, we're working together to try and get this message out. So this is the um second episode of Dr. Doctor. Super excited to continue to share with you what our team and what everyone's doing to get involved in clinical research and also to connect with current physicians. Thank you.