Participant Engagement Consultations and Resources

Before you begin actively engaging participants, consider:

• What are the incentives to participate?
• What are the barriers (e.g., time off work, transportation)? Are there solutions to make it easier to participate (monetary compensation, Uber vouchers, etc.)?
• Are there community partners (local clinics, schools, campus orgs) you can engage to help you share the study opportunity?
• Are there local patient advocacy organizations you could partner with to help advertise your study?
• What form of recruitment communication is appropriate for your population: email, phone, print media, social media, etc.
• Consider translating recruitment materials in other languages.
• Do you have a plan to disseminate your findings in lay terms to participants? This is often overlooked by study teams but it is extremely important for building trust and a positive perception of research participation.
• Recruitment Strategizing Worksheet

Measure impact. Track how your participants learned of your study.

REMINDER: All recruitment materials & language must be approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and comply with Stanford Human Subjects Research Recruitment Guidance.

Need additional support? Contact  EngageParticipants@stanford.edu

• See Workflows for Accessing Stanford Patient Data and Contacting Potential Participants:
  • Participant Engagement Platform (PEP) honest broker services for Stanford patients identified via STARR:
    • Direct Email, for studies including healthy controls
    • Epic MyChart (Stanford Children’s Health)
    • Epic MyHealth (Stanford Health Care)
    • Postal Mail    
• For Bay Area beyond Stanford
  • Stanford Research Registry
  • StudyPages landing page and participant management         
• Menu of Services and Costs (SUnet required)

• Review other participant engagement plans and materials, including social media resources
• Provide community engagement strategies and referrals to Stanford’s Community Advisory Board (CAB) for Clinical Research
• Facilitate access to Trial Innovation Network (TIN) resources for multi-site studies
   

Research Participant Engagement Program Overview (slide deck)

Best Practices for Recruitment Materials (slide deck)

Watch an introduction to our services:

• Introduction to our Services
  • Links referenced in recording:
    • Stanford Research Registry
    • Study Pages Study Directory
    • Recruitment Strategizing Worksheet

For consultation, contact EngageParticipants@stanford.edu

CTSA's Recruitment & Retention Materials Content + Design Toolkit

To help support your recruitment efforts, we have developed templates for various aspects of the participant engagement process.

Participant Engagement  Budget Template:

How to Plan a Recruitment Budget

Step by Step Instructions for Using Honest Broker Services (OnCore, IRB, STARR, Epic)

Study Invitation Letter Templates:

Principal Investigator-Provider Co-invitation Study Letter template
Direct Email honest broker Study Letter template
Epic MyChart/MyHealth honest broker Study Letter template
Postal Mail honest broker Study Letter template
Stanford Research Registry Email Letter template

How to Plan a Participant Recruitment Budget for your Study

The staff effort and costs associated with participant recruitment are almost always underestimated. Incorporating sufficient funding into the grant proposal budget is essential for attaining your enrollment goals.

If you haven’t already, brainstorm using our Recruitment Strategizing Worksheet to get started.

For planning your budget, consider:

• Study population: Is the pool of eligible participants large or limited? Stanford patients or beyond Stanford?
  • For large participant populations, consider broad approaches, such as social media, newspaper ads, and posting flyers in high visibility areas. Our Stanford Research Registry or Direct Email “honest broker” outreach may also be a good fit.
    
  • For highly specific participant populations, consider budgeting for more staff time to conduct chart reviews, clinic recruitment, and outreach to relevant patient advocacy/support groups. Our Epic MyChart “honest broker” outreach may also be a good fit.
• Estimated Eligible Rate: How many people will you have to screen to identify eligible participants?
  
  • Recruitment is always harder than anticipated. If you estimate a 6:1 screening to enroll rate, budget for 10:1. Consider the “Recruitment Funnel” below. For example, if your enrollment goal is 100 participants, how will you engage 1,000 potentially eligible participants?
    
    

Initial Consultation

The initial consultation is designed to deliver any of the above services. Each consultation is tailored to your research participation needs. An email summary of recommendations and next steps are provided.

Please note: We will request the following items prior to the initial consultation:

• Study synopsis, inclusion/exclusion criteria
• Timeline
• Enrollment goal and status
• If applicable, recruitment strategies tried and recruitment materials/language
• Other relevant information, such as compensation
   

Six-month Follow-up

During this session, we will assess what worked well and what did not in order to make needed adjustments to your participant engagement plan. Please bring along data you’ve collected to track your recruitment efforts.

All consultations are held in-person or virtually via Zoom.

Contact Us to Schedule a Consultation

Stanford Research Participation Program Expands (Stanford Spectrum Newsletter, June 2022)

Study Team Recruitment Efforts Get a Powerful New Ally (Research Office Bulletin, March 2021)

Expanded program helps researchers engage study participants (Research Office Bulletin, November 2019)