Recruiting primary care practices for practice-based research: a case study of a group-randomized study (TRANSLATE...

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Primary Care Medicine
• Clinical Study Recruitment

Background:

• Assessing the complexities of recruiting primary care practices for practice-based research.
• Highlighting the challenges encountered in a large-scale study (TRANSLATE CKD).

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the recruitment process and identify barriers in engaging primary care practices for research.
• To understand factors influencing successful enrollment and identify common recruitment challenges.

Main Methods:

• Descriptive case study utilizing recruitment data from 48 healthcare organizations (114 practices).
• Collection of quantitative and qualitative data for the first 25 enrolled practices.
• Analysis of outreach, response rates, enrollment time, and recruitment barriers.

Main Results:

• Only 22% of initially contacted practices (48% of interested) were enrolled, averaging 71 days.
• Administrative barriers, particularly lack of perceived organizational benefit, were most common, especially in large organizations.
• No significant difference in recruitment duration based on enrollment status or organization size.

Conclusions:

• Recruitment challenges in primary care research are primarily managerial, not solely due to research topic or interest.
• Future research recruitment strategies should incorporate business administration and marketing methodologies.
• Addressing administrative hurdles and demonstrating organizational value are crucial for effective practice engagement.