Innovations in Informed Consent and Recruitment Seminar

This seminar — held on September 29, 2017— covered crucial issues in research: recruitment, informed consent, and user-centered design. 

Achieving adequate study recruitment is an ongoing challenge for research studies. Enrolling the number of people needed to support statistical significance of analysis and ensure that a large, diverse sample of the population is represented can seem daunting. Issues around health literacy, mistrust, and lack of opportunity can compound recruitment difficulties. Innovations in the design of research recruitment processes are necessary to capture the broadest, most inclusive, cross section of society so that medical breakthroughs truly benefit everyone.

The informed consent process is also ever-evolving to become more adaptable to participant needs. In our increasingly busy and technological society, design innovations such as e-consent are paving the way to a more user-centered approach to research implementation, one that makes participants better informed and empowered.

Our guest experts provide insights for bringing innovative approaches to research recruitment and implementation. We also provide local context on the array of resources available at the University of Pittsburgh to help with recruitment and the informed consent process. 

Agenda

Noon
Opening Remarks
— Dr. Steven E. Reis

12:30 p.m.
Challenges in Recruiting Underserved Populations to Research Studies
— Dr. Robert A. Winn

1:30 p.m.
User Centered Design for Research and Clinical Study 
— John Wilbanks

2:30 p.m.
Recruitment Innovations: Services and Resources 
— Katelyn Collinger