MICHR’s UMHealthResearch.org (UMHR) is designed to go above and beyond other participant recruitment platforms because it supports research studies and clinical trials in two ways. While volunteers can search for studies (both healthy and with specific medical conditions) and researchers can search for volunteers to find matches based on their interests and needs, the system automatically matches both to relevant studies and people.
Much of UMHealthResearch.org’s national reputation as an exceptional research participant recruitment platform is due to its innovative design, which has led to it being adopted by other research sites across the country. MICHR’s Informatics team has created a customizable version for dissemination throughout the CTSA network and other academic research sites as YourHealthResearch. Once another site adopts it, they change the look and feel to their own branding.
The site has been deployed across the country, including at half a dozen other Clinical and Translational Science Award programs in the Chicago area, rebranded as bethenewnormalmatch.org, with more expressing interest as the word spreads about its unique design and interface.
The University of Miami is the latest academic research institute to launch their own customized version of YourHealthResearch, UMiamiHealthResearch.org, which went live in mid-October. Each instance of YourHealthResearch matches members of the public with health research opportunities that need volunteers to help discover treatments, vaccines, and what the pandemic’s long-term impacts will be on healthy people and survivors.
At MICHR, about $2 million and 10 years of user-centered design have gone into creating the tool, and it’s available to the public and researchers for free to team up in the fight against COVID-19. More than 56,000 people have volunteered to participate in health studies at U-M via UMHealthResearch.org.
"I’m very proud of the work MICHR has done in developing and disseminating the YourHealthResearch (YHR) participant recruitment portal. The unique gap that YHR fills has been recognized by our peer institutions, and YHR has already been installed by academic medical centers across Chicago and, most recently, the University of Miami,” explained Dr. David Hanauer, Director of MICHR’s Informatics Program and Associate Professor in the Medical School. “YHR can be locally branded, so potential subjects will feel comfortable interacting with the site, and know that the research will be conducted in their local area. We have other research centers expressing interest in YHR so we think it has a bright future for helping connect research teams with the community."
Learn more about the platform and explore how other universities can launch their own sites at yourhealthresearch.org.