title: Radiological clinical trials: Proposal of a problem-finding questionnaire to improve study success.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a survey to help define the main problems in radiological clinical trials.
  
  
  METHODS
  Since 2006, we have managed seven different radiological clinical trials recruiting patients in academic and non-academic centres. We developed a preliminary questionnaire using a four-round Delphi approach to identify problems occurring in radiological clinical trials run at our centre. We investigated the recruitment experience, involvement of all multi-disciplinary team members and main obstacles to completing the projects. A final round of Delphi processes elucidated solutions to the identified problems.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 19/20 (95%) respondents, 10 (53%) were young physicians (under 35 years old), and the respondents included non-faculty members, fellows, residents, and undergraduate students. Ninety-four percent (18/19) of respondents showed interest in conducting clinical trials. On a scale of 1 to 10, the problems with higher/worse scores (8-9) were related to technical or communication problems. The most frequent problems across all studies were technical problems related to clinical trial equipment, insufficient willingness to participate, obstacles to understanding the design of electronic-case report form and extra work.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The developed questionnaire identified the main recurring problems in radiological clinical trials as perceived by end-users and helped define possible solutions that are mostly related to having dedicated clinical trial research staff.
authors.affiliation: Francesca Valdora, Alberto Tagliafico, Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES) - Institute of Anatomy, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Valdora
authors.affiliation: Francesca Valdora, Alberto Tagliafico, Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES) - Institute of Anatomy, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bignotti
authors.affiliation: Francesca Valdora, Alberto Tagliafico, Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES) - Institute of Anatomy, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Calabrese
authors.affiliation: Francesca Valdora, Alberto Tagliafico, Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES) - Institute of Anatomy, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Nehmat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Houssami
authors.affiliation: Francesca Valdora, Alberto Tagliafico, Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES) - Institute of Anatomy, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tagliafico
keywords: Clinical trials; Data management; Magnetic resonance imaging; Mammography; Ultrasonography