The Demographic,Practice,and Prescribing Characteristics of US Clinical Investigators

Abstract

This article examines the demographic, practice, and prescribing behavior of US principal investigators, especially those conducting outpatient clinical trials. US investigators are predominantly office based but are more likely than the general US physician population to be teaching, conducting research, or working at academic medical centers. When compared with the US physician population, investigators are somewhat older, more likely to be male, prescribe at levels comparable to their practice peers, and more likely to be board certified. However, there appear to be few demographic, practice, or prescribing differences between physicians who conduct numerous clinical trials and those who conduct few trials. For the many physicians who only participate in one or two clinical trials, the reasons for this limited participation must be due to factors other than these investigators' demographic, practice and prescribing characteristics.