Utilization of Broad Consent as an Effective Instrument for Study Recruitment

Recruiting patients for the participation in studies is a complex and time-consuming task.

The aim was to recruit patients via broad consent to participate in a questionnaire as part of the PEAK study.

Some patients agreed on the option of recontacting them for future studies as part of the Broad Consent of the Erlangen University Hospital and the University Hospital Halle (Saale). These patients were contacted by letter asking for their participation in the PEAK study although this had no linkage to their illness. 3,489 patients were contacted in Erlangen und 4,000 patients in Halle (Saale).

In response, in Erlangen 580 participants (16,6%) completed the questionnaire fully by giving their perspective regarding AI in healthcare. In Halle, 451 participants (11%) completed the questionnaire in full.

The awareness of the problem of deceased patients has increased, so that a comparison with the population register was made during the course of the process. Furthermore, weighting up between contacting patients for study purposes and the potential withdrawal of consent for recontacting patients in the context of the Broad Consent next to fatigue with regard to participation in studies remains controversial even though there were hardly any significant numbers of withdrawals of consent.

The utilization of the Broad Consent beyond the mainly intended use for retrospective secondary data use or disease-related study invitation instead now as an instrument for general study recruitment led to a successful recruitment of patients to respond the PEAK patient questionnaire. Contrary to the original fear, only a minimum of patients withdrew their authorization for recontacting. Several learnings, such as the need for a comprehensive vital checking prior the sending, could be derived from this attempt.