Centralized Research Recruitment—Evolving a Local Clinical Research Recruitment Web Application to Better Meet User Needs

Abstract

Recruiting volunteers into clinical research remains a significant challenge for many clinical research study teams, thus the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) at the University of Michigan developed UMClinicalStudies (www.UMClinicalStudies.org) - a web application that links the community to a single gateway for clinical research. UMClinicalStudies (formerly named “Engage”) is an integral piece of MICHR's efforts to increase clinical research participation in order to advance medical discoveries. Despite the initial success of the application, barriers to research participation remain, including the applications accessibility for potential research volunteers and study team members. In response, new initiatives were instigated to identify user needs, in order to broaden the ability to simultaneously assist researchers in recruitment activities, while also aiding potential volunteers in the exploration of and participation in clinical research opportunities. To do this, improvements to the interface and functionality were identified and implemented for both the public and the research audiences through extensive system analysis, and through the application of human computer interactivity processes, resulting in significant improvements in usability and ultimately research volunteerism, indicating that utilizing such technology is pivotal in reaching broader audiences for clinical trial participation.

Are patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at risk of a therapeutic misconception?

“…We recruited persons diagnosed with ALS aged 18 years and older through the University of Michigan Clinical Studies platform (UMClinicalStudies.org, public portal that matches researchers with potential study participants18), two online ALS patient support community forums (ALS Therapy Development Institute forum and ALSforums.com), an ALS consortium website (NEALS—Northeast ALS Consortium) and the University of Rochester ALS clinic, from May 2014 through May 2015. UMClinicalStudies.org generates a list of potential participants who match a study's inclusion criteria among those who had previously agreed to be contacted for matching studies.…”

Public's Views toward Return of Secondary Results in Genomic Sequencing: It's (Almost) All about the Choice

“…Sixty-six members of the public, recruited via the University of Michigan Clinical Studies website [http://UMClinicalStudies.org](Dwyer-White, Doshi, Hill, & Pienta, 2011), attended an all-day deliberative session. Because our volunteer pool tended to be older, whiter, and more female, we oversampled for age (younger), race/ethnicity (African American), and gender (male).…”

Frontiers: Integration of a Research Participant Registry with Medical Clinic Registration and Electronic Health Records

“…This fast growth is likely due to integration of the registry enrollment process with clinic registration and use of a single‐page authorization form. Other registries have been less successful . For example, the registry program developed at Vanderbilt that evolved into http://ResearchMatch.org enrolled fewer than 3,000 participants in the first 3 years .…”

“…Recruitment of study participants can be facilitated by maintaining registries of people who agree to be contacted for future studies. Registries range from simple databases that include only contact information, to more sophisticated regional and national registries that include individual health information and that can be searched for individuals who meet specific study criteria . Such registries clearly facilitate recruitment, but they can be costly to develop, advertise, and maintain …”

“…Registries range from simple databases that include only contact information, to more sophisticated regional and national registries that include individual health information and that can be searched for individuals who meet specifi c study criteria. [3][4][5][6][7] Such registries clearly facilitate recruitment, but they can be costly to develop, advertise, and maintain. 3,5,6,[8][9][10][11] Frontiers: Th e Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research is an academic home for clinical and translational research, headquartered at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) and partly funded by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health since 2011.…”