Minutes (01-11-01)

We apologize for any mix-up for those who were unable to join in on the call.

Thank you Mace for sending out two articles on recruitment of women and retention strategies for longitudinal studies. If you have not received these articles here are the references.

Harris, D. J., & Douglas, P. S. (2000). Enrollment of women in cardiovascular clinical trials funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood, Institute. New England Journal of Medicine, 343, 475-80.
Hunt, J. R and White, E. (1998). Retaining and tracking cohort study members. Epidemiologic Reviews, 20, 57-71.

We began the call by having all participants introduce themselves and their projects. Approximately seven sites were represented. Each site gave a brief update of their recruitment to date and described any difficulties in recruiting or retaining subjects. We also discussed some strategies for patient tracking.

We also discussed an agenda for the up coming BCC meeting.

Agenda for up coming BCC meeting

Mace — will give introduction

Tammy — will review the Hunt and White article

Candace — discuss some novel ideas on retention and how to get people motivated, bargaining strategies, drop out recovery

Below is a table of the sites, some problems, and strategies identified for recruitment and retention.I apologize in advance for anything that was not entered correctly or that I might have misinterpreted. Mace will send a copy of Table 3 form the Hunt and White article to Tammy.

Name	Site	Recruited Patients	Problems	Follow-up and Retention Strategies	Tracking System
Candace Young	Cornell: Healthy Behaviors	554	How do we keep subjects interested since follow-up is every 3 months?	1) Bargaining- limit the amount of data to those most essential 2) Establish continuity of research team. 3) Home visits	Access
Lisa Strycker	Oregon: Diabetes Trial	250	How do we recruit severely ill patients?	1) Buddy system 2) Monetary incentives 3) T-shirts 4) Media advertisement 5) Raffles	Paradox
Tamara Sher	Chicago: Partners for Life	Finished pilot study	How do we get subjects to participate if they only wish to participate with their partners?	1) Media 2) Radio call in show 3) PI makes some calls 4) Reminding subjects of the overall purpose of the study and that 5) Others may benefit	ACT
Cynthia Castro	Stanford: CHAT	225	How do we get subjects interested in the control arm?	1) Community outreach 2) News papers 3) Radio	Now contact- Now up to date- Only available for MACs
Sandra Saunders	Rhode Island: SENIOR	670	How do we get those subjects who are not motivated to participate?	1) Media 2) News papers 3) Community groups 4) Bilingual staff	Access
Beth McQuaid	Rhode Island: PAQS	40 families in pilot phase	1) How do we keep track of a population that tends to be transient? 2) How do we retain staff members who are nurses contracted to work on the project?	1) Monetary incentives 2) Mapping staff member to families 3) Splitting up the incentives throughout the project	Access
Scott Wright	Rochester: Smoker’s Health Study	360	How do we get subjects in for their first appointments?	1) Doctor referrals 2) Television	?

Present:
	Mace Coday (University of Tennessee) (Chair)
	Carla Boutin-Foster (Cornell University)
	Cynthia Castro (Stanford)
	Chantal Levesque (Rochester)
	Beth McQuaid (Brown/Miriam)
	Sandra Saunders (University of Rhode Island)
	Tamara Sher (Illinois Institute of Technology)
	Lisa Strycker (ORI)
	Jennifer Tennant (IIT)
	Candace Young (Cornell University)
	Scott Wright (University of Rochester)