Controlled Clinical Trials 22:659–673 (2001) © Elsevier Science Inc. 2001 0197-2456/01/$–see front matter 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 PII S0197-2456(01)00176-3 The Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT): Clinical Center Recruitment Experience Jackson T. Wright, Jr., MD, PhD, William C. Cushman, MD, Barry R. Davis, MD, PhD, Joshua Barzilay, MD, Pedro Colon, MD, Debra Egan, MS, MPH, Tracy Lucente, MPH, Chuke Nwachuku, MA, MPH, Sara Pressel, MS, Frans H.H. Leenen, MD, PhD, Joseph Frolkis, MD, PhD, Rebecca Letterer, RN, BSN, Sandra Walsh, MA, Jonathan N. Tobin, PhD, and Grant E. Deger, MD, for the ALLHAT Research Group Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (J.T.W.); Memphis VAMC, Memphis, Tennessee (W.C.C., S.W.); University of Texas at Houston, Houston, Texas (B.R.D., S.P.); Kaiser Permanente, Tucker, Georgia (J.B.); Centro Cardiovascular de Caguas, Cuguas, Puerto Rico (P.C.); NHLBI, Bethesda, Maryland (D.E., C.N.); Rush Presbyterian Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois (T.L.); University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (F.H.H.L.); Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio (J.F.); University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (R.L.); Clinical Directors Network, Inc., New York, New York (J.N.T.); and Madrona Medical Group, Bellingham, Washington (G.E.D.) For a complete list of members of the ALLHAT Collaborative Research Group, see reference 1. ABSTRACT: The Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT) is a randomized clinical outcome trial of antihypertensive and lipid- lowering therapy in a diverse population (including substantial numbers of women and minorities) of 42,419 high-risk hypertensives aged  55 years with a planned mean fol- low-up of 6 years. In this paper, we describe our experience in the identification, recruit- ment, and selection of clinical centers for this large simple trial capable of meeting the recruitment goals outlined for ALLHAT, and we highlight factors associated with clini- cal center performance. Over 135,000 recruitment brochures were mailed to physicians. Address reprint requests to: Jackson T. Wright, Jr., MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Director, Clinical Hypertension Program, Case Western Reserve University, Division of Hypertension, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106-4982 (jxw20@po.cwru.edu). Received March 24, 2000; accepted June 25, 2001.