Traditional clinical research study registries require researchers to seek out participants and find suitable matches to enroll in their studies. At the University of Michigan, the UMHealthResearch.org registry takes its capabilities one important step further by empowering potential research participants to do the same.
“Rather than making the registry a passive experience where participants fill out a form and then nothing happens until a researcher contacts them, in UMHealthResearch.org, volunteers can search and sign up for studies they’re interested in independently,” explained Aalap Doshi, Director of Innovation at the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) and lead designer of UMHealthResearch.org.
Since MICHR launched UMHealthResearch.org more than 15 years ago, it has transformed study recruitment at the University of Michigan, using a simple user experience that has created a pool of nearly 48,000 people. These volunteers have raised their hand to say they are interested in being involved in research, and they can search the site for more than 300 active research studies to participate in health research.
Novel System Gains National Attention
UMHealthResearch goes above and beyond a typical participant recruitment platform because it allows for study use both ways: volunteers (both healthy and with specific medical conditions) and researchers can search for studies and find matches based on their interests and needs.
This unique participant recruitment site has received national recognition and attention across the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium. UMHealthResearch is now being deployed across the country at half a dozen other CTSA programs in Illinois and Florida, with more expressing interest as the word spreads.
UMHealthResearch Enables Volunteers to Explore COVID-19 Research
The U-M platform has also enabled MICHR to respond rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic by enabling potential research participants to register themselves as having the virus and to volunteer in clinical trials aimed at mitigating its pernicious spread and impact. More than 60 volunteers have registered on UMHealthResearch.org who have expressed an interest in COVID-19 studies, 50 of whom selected the virus as a past or present medical condition.
“UMHealthResearch.org has enormous potential to make a difference in the fight against COVID,” said Doshi. “Anyone can help out and do their part. Whether you’re healthy or sick, please consider signing up. Even if you haven’t been exposed to COVID-19, there are many other opportunities to get involved in research, even studies that can be done from home. Other diseases and health topics don’t just go away because of the current health crisis.”
More U-M studies are posted all the time, and the goal is for all studies to be registered in UMHealthResearch.org for matching with potential participants. MICHR has a participant recruitment team available to help study teams find volunteers, and UMHealthResearch is at the heart of that team’s service offerings.
From a Multi-system Approach to National Standard for Study Recruitment
Before UMHealthResearch, study coordinators at U-M had several, decentralized resources they used to share studies and search for volunteers. The hospital IT group had a digital flyer system where studies were posted, and volunteers could reach out to study teams. Volunteers weren’t engaged enough, and investigators were frustrated at the lack of volunteers. MICHR reached out to U-M’s School of Information to ask how the breast cancer registry could be improved. That’s when Doshi was asked to assist, and he focused his master’s thesis on ways to improve the tool.
When the UMHealthResearch Registry launched in 2006, it was designed as a breast cancer study registry with an initial pool of about 800 women who had volunteered to participate in research studies. In its earliest version, volunteers couldn’t search for studies – the burden of matching volunteers to studies lay solely with the researchers and clinical study teams (coordinators). With its user-friendly design and cohesive platform, use of UMHealthResearch quickly spread.
“UMHealthResearch has been an important participant recruitment tool connecting study teams with a large cohort of volunteers interested and eager to participate in research studies,” said Jim Maszatics, MICHR Informatics Program Director. “This interactive portal has bridged the gap from traditional recruitment methods to the digital age.”
For more information, please visit UMHealthResearch.org.