A rapid information-gathering tool embedded within the national volunteer registry, ResearchMatch, is helping clinical researchers obtain feedback from potential study participants to improve trial design and recruitment strategies.
“Traditional methods of seeking community input on study design and operational assumptions can be time-consuming and resource-intensive,” said the creator of ResearchMatch, Paul Harris, PhD, professor of Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics and director of the Office of Clinical Research Informatics in the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “This new Expert Advice service line provides a streamlined way to gather valuable feedback from the populations we hope to serve, helping us design more community-relevant and participant-friendly clinical studies and trials.”
ResearchMatch is a national online registry that connects individuals interested in participating in research with researchers conducting health-related studies, at no cost to either party. It’s funded by the National Institutes of Health and managed by VUMC, in collaboration with a network of research institutions across the U.S. Since its launch, ResearchMatch reports having more than 9,300 registered studies from across 250 institutions use the platform and having matched more than 186,000 individuals with at least one research study.
The Expert Advice Tool is facilitated by the ResearchMatch team at VUMC and enables researchers to collect feedback from individuals with specific health conditions or lived experiences. Aggregate feedback is shared with study teams to inform the feasibility or design of proposed clinical trials before they begin, or to assist ongoing trials that may be struggling with recruitment or retention.
The tool was described in a recent report from Harris and a team at VUMC and Meharry Medical College, published in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. The report describes 10 early uses of the tool, which allowed researchers to use surveys of volunteers to assess study feasibility, review recruitment materials, and gauge participant interest. Response rates varied from 4% to 96%, with participants offering insights on topics ranging from participant compensation to protocol design.
“This tool provides potential participants with the ability to quickly and easily participate as subject matter experts in the clinical trial design process,” said the report’s first author, Maeve Tischbein, PhD, program manager, VICTR. “Some 97% of volunteers felt this experience was worth their time, and nearly as many expressed interest in participating again. When combined with the positive feedback received from study teams, we’re encouraged that this tool is helping to bridge the gap between participant involvement and the design of clinical trials.”
As outlined in the report, one study team reported substantial improvements in enrollment after implementing recommendations received through the tool. Others used the feedback to strengthen grant applications or modify study protocols.
Researchers seeking to use the tool submit proposals through the Trial Innovation Network (TIN). In a free service, staff with TIN’s Recruitment Innovation Center help study teams craft and mount surveys, then distill survey results into recommendations for the study team.
ResearchMatch is supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants U24TR001579, U24TR004432, and U24TR001608).
