1. –
Increasing registration volume in clinical research study volunteer
registries using strategic hyperlink placement
Jeffrey Grever, MPH; Mary Ellen Wewers, PhD; Gail Kaye, PhD
INTRODUCTION
Today’s online environment provides many new and
exciting opportunities for research teams to recruit
participants into their clinical research studies. Research
teams are using social media, email, online communities,
and study registries to recruit study participants.1-4
Significance
Recruitment of research study participants often proves
very challenging for clinical research teams. Difficulty
enrolling participants can delay or inhibit the discovery of
better treatments and therapies to improve health
outcomes for patients.5
• Nearly 80% of studies fail to finish on time due to
recruitment and retention challenges6
• 67% of clinical research sites fail to meet their original
participant enrollment goals5,6
• Only 6% of U.S. population will ever participate in a
study5
• 94% of population has never been informed by
their doctor about participating in research5
• 73% would consider volunteering for a study5
The stages of the intervention as they were implemented over time.
PIR hyperlinks in main navigation menu (left) and sub-navigation menu (top) in OSUMyChart.
OSU CCTS Community Participation webpage:
unique visitors
New ResearchMatch registrations: Ohio residents
and living < 50 miles from OSU campus (Columbus)
METHODS
Evaluated the effectiveness of placing hyperlinks on two
secure healthcare websites to increase registration in a
volunteer clinical research study registry (ResearchMatch)
using a pretest vs. post-test study evaluation design.
Evaluation Questions
• Does placing a hyperlink to clinical research study
participation information and resources in a secure,
online medical record access portal for patients
(OSUMyChart) increase registration in a clinical
research volunteer registry (ResearchMatch)?
• Do hyperlinks placed on a secure, internal website
(OneSource) limited to medical center faculty and staff
increase registration in a clinical research volunteer
registry (ResearchMatch)?
RESULTS
Unique Visitors: Community Participation webpage
• PIR hyperlink in OSUMyChart increased unique visitors by
1255% in Oct. 2012
• Hyperlinks in Y2C polls on OneSource increased unique
visitors by 43% in Summer 2014
• Research Studies hyperlink in OneSource secondary
navigation menu increased unique visitors by 23% in Sep.
2014
New ResearchMatch Registrations: Ohio residents,
OSU campus
• New registrations per month in the state of Ohio increased
by 56% (n = 193)
• New registrations per month living < 50 miles from OSU
campus (Columbus) increased by 70% (n = 117)
CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggests there is an association between the
strategic placement of hyperlinks on secure websites
within a health care context and increased interest in
participating in clinical research studies and registration in
an online clinical research volunteer registry.
REFERENCES
1 Koo, M. and H. Skinner (2005). “Challenges of internet recruitment: a case study with
disappointing results.” J Med Internet Res 7(1): e6.
2 Harris, P.A., W. Scott, L. Lebo, N. Hassan, C. Lightner and J. Pulley (2012). “ResearchMatch: a
national registry to recruit volunteers for clinical research.” Acad Med 87(1): 66-73.
3 Mishra, G. D., R. Hockey, J. Powers, D. Loxton, L. Tooth, I. Rowlands, J. Byles and A. Dobson
(2014). “Recruitment via the Internet and social networking sites: the 1989-1995 cohort of the
Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.” J Med Internet Res 16(12): e279.
4 Valdez, R.S., T.M. Guterbock, M.J. Thompson, J.D. Reilly, H.K. Menefee, M.S. Bennici, I.C. Williams
and D.L. Rexrode (2014). “Beyond traditional advertisements: leveraging Facebook’s social
structures for research recruitment.” J Med Internet Res 16(10): e243.
5 Handen, J.S. (2015). Re-inventing Drug Development. Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press.
6 Bairu, M. and M.W. Weiner (2014). Global Clinical Trials for Alzheimer’s Disease Design,
Implementation, and Standardized Preface: xiii-xiv.
7 Ajzen, I. (1991). “The theory of planned behavior.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
50: 179-211.
8 Weinstein, N.D. and P.M. Sandman (1992). “A model of the precaution adoption process: evidence
from home radon testing.” Health Psychol 11(3): 170-180.
9 BUSPH. (2013). “The Theory of Planned Behavior.” Behavioral Change Models Retrieved Mar. 27,
2015, from http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/SB721-Models/SB721-Models3/html.
10 Stanger-Hall, K.F. and D.W. Hall (2011). “Abstinence-only education and teen pregnancy rates: why
we need comprehensive sex education in the U.S.” PLoS One 6(10): e24658.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to Rose Hallarn and Blair Gonsenhauser from the OSU CCTS’s
Recruitment and Retention program and Carson Reider, PhD, and Michael Para, MD,
from the OSU CCTS’s Regulatory Knowledge and Support program.
The project described was supported by award number 8UL1TR000090-05 from the
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The content is solely the
responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences or the National Institutes of Health.
COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH / HEALTH BEHAVIOR HEALTH PROMOTION
THEORIES OF CHANGE
The design and analysis of this pre-test vs. post-test
program evaluation included constructs of the Theory of
Planned Behavior7 and the Precaution Adoption
Process Model.8
Study Intervention Timeline
OSUMyChart: Participate in Research (PIR) hyperlinks
CPH.OSU.EDU
Theory of Planned Behavior9
Precaution Adoption Process Model10
Independent variables
• Participate in Research (PIR) hyperlink placed in
navigation menu of The Ohio State University Wexner
Medical Center’s (OSUWMC) online medical record patient
access portal (OSUMyChart)
• Hyperlinks added to Your 2 Cents (Y2C) polls OSUWMC’s
internal faculty/staff website (OneSource)
• Research Studies hyperlink placed in secondary
navigation menu in OneSource
Measures
• Number of unique visitors to The Ohio State University
Center for Clinical and Translational Science’s (OSU CCTS)
Community Participation webpage
• Number of new ResearchMatch registrations living in the
state of Ohio and < 50 miles from OSU campus (Columbus)