The Best Kept Secret at the CCTS

Recruitment and Retention

The Ohio State Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) is a hidden gem for researchers. Within the CCTS, the Recruitment and Retention program offers help to researchers with those first “touch points” with the community, and share best practices to help reach recruitment goals. Requesting a consultation with Recruitment and Retention Services early in the design of a research study can help to reduce the burden of study participant recruitment, which can often be more challenging than expected. 

Recruitment and Retention strives to ensure that studies are fully recruited with high retention. They achieve this by setting up a consultation to help reduce the burden of study participation. Consultations are broken up into seven categories:

  1. Best Practices- They guarantee great customer service with every participant and every study team. 
  2. Design of Marketing Materials- Setting up digital ads for your study as well as creating ads for print materials(flyers, brochures, postcards)
  3. MyChart for Recruitment- They will set researchers up on MyChart to identify potential participants.
  4. Referrals- They provide a HEROLine phone line as well as email help connect and provide information to individuals to studies for which they might be eligible.
  5. ResearchMatch- A secure, national volunteer registry that is available to all researchers at The Ohio State University at no cost, to find potential participants for their studies.
  6. StudySearch- Similar to ResearchMatch, it provides an easy way for potential study participants to find basic, descriptive information about openly recruiting research studies and trials being conducted at The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. 
  7. Connecting- They have numerous resources available on campus to help promote studies.

“Recruitment and Retention is the best kept secret at Ohio State,” says Mary Becker, Program Manager for Recruitment and Retention services, “and our goal is to not be. We want more people coming to us and using what we have to offer.” 

Along with consultations, they offer assistance with pre-screening surveys, recruitment using electronic health record tools, and different recruitment methods to identify and target your perfect study participant.

If you are interested in the CCTS Recruitment and Retention services offered, contact Mary Becker at Mary.Becker@osumc.edu . “If there is one thing I can promise you, it is if I don’t know the answer, I will find it for you to make sure that your study is able to reach its fullest potential.”