How to recruit chronic kidney disease patients for clinical trials

How many Americans have chronic kidney disease?

The CDC estimates that more than 1 in 7 US adults, about 14% or roughly 37 million people, have chronic kidney disease. About 9 in 10 adults with CKD (87%) do not know they have it (CDC).

That awareness gap is the defining recruitment problem. A patient who has never been told about kidney disease will not search for a kidney trial. The diagnosis lives in lab results, mostly in primary care and nephrology charts.

How many chronic kidney disease trials are recruiting in the United States right now?

As of October 6, 2026, ClinicalTrials.gov lists 180 chronic kidney disease studies with a status of recruiting and at least one location in the United States (ClinicalTrials.gov). Of those, 133 are interventional trials and 47 are observational studies. Industry is the lead sponsor on 59 of them, about 33%. Academic centers, cooperative groups, and government sponsors run the rest.

Interventional chronic kidney disease trials by phase:

The median interventional trial targets 110 participants in total across all of its sites. The typical industry funded trial lists 9.5 recruiting locations in the United States, so each site is usually expected to deliver a small slice of that total, and sponsors notice quickly which sites deliver none.

Where are chronic kidney disease trials concentrated?

Every location on every recruiting study counts here. Together the 180 studies list 2,151 recruiting US locations. These states host the most recruiting studies:

The most frequently listed institutions include Brigham and Women's Hospital, University of Michigan, North America Research Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital. The industry sponsors with the most recruiting chronic kidney disease trials right now include AstraZeneca, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Bayer, United Therapeutics, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. If your site sits in one of the top states, you are recruiting from the same patient population as several large academic programs at once, and the patients who reach you will mostly come through the physicians who already treat them.

Which physicians hold CKD patients?

• Nephrologists, for diagnosed and progressing disease. The AAMC counts 12,623 active nephrologists (AAMC 2024 via Becker's).
• Primary care physicians, who order the routine labs where most CKD is first visible. The AAMC counts 126,171 family medicine and general practice physicians.
• Endocrinologists, because diabetes is a leading cause of kidney disease and many trials enroll diabetic kidney disease.
• Cardiologists, for cardiorenal studies.

What decides eligibility in CKD trials?

CKD protocols usually specify an eGFR range, a urine albumin to creatinine ratio threshold, the underlying cause, and current therapy such as specific blood pressure or diabetes medications. Because these are lab values, the referring physician can screen a patient list in minutes if you give exact cutoffs. With screen failures averaging 36.3% across Phase 2 and 3 trials (Tufts CSDD), lab based prescreening before the first visit is one of the cheapest ways to protect your screening budget.

Why physician referral matters more than volume

A large patient population does not fill trials on its own. Physicians refer a median of about five patients into clinical trials per year, which is less than 0.2% of their annual patient volume (Getz, Applied Clinical Trials). In Tufts CSDD research, physicians and nurses named lack of access to study information and lack of time as the main reasons they do not refer, and physicians in clinical practice were 2.7 times more likely to refer than physicians in hospital settings (Tufts CSDD via Applied Clinical Trials).

That is the gap a site can close. The physicians who diagnose and manage your study population already know which patients are likely to qualify. They need a short, specific summary of your open study, a named coordinator, and a reason to believe the patient will come back to them.

A practical chronic kidney disease referral plan for your site

1. Pull the live ClinicalTrials.gov list for your state and note which competing studies are enrolling the same population within driving distance of your site.
2. List the nephrologists, primary care practices, and endocrinologists within a realistic drive of your site. Community practices come first.
3. Send each physician a one page study summary: the diagnosis, the two or three criteria that decide most eligibility, what the patient will experience, and the coordinator's direct line.
4. Follow up by email and LinkedIn, and call the practices that engage.
5. Report back to the referring physician on every patient, whether or not the patient enrolls.

See how to get physicians to refer patients and the referral letter guide for templates.