Recruiting physicians for office-based research

Research conducted in community outpatient offices can provide insight into the common experiences of patients and physicians. However, recruiting physicians to participate in office-based research is challenging and few descriptions of methods that have been used to successfully recruit random samples of physicians are available. This article describes recruitment strategies utilized in a project that achieved high rates of participation from community-based primary care physicians and surgeons.

Recruitment methods included the use of advisory boards to identify potential barriers to participation, use of respected members of the medical community as recruiters, and obtaining endorsements from physician organizations and prominent members of the medical community.

Overall, 81% of physicians contacted from a sample frame agreed to participate in the project. Participating physicians most frequently reported that they participated because the project could provide them with feedback about their interviewing style.

The recruitment methods described here can be generalized to other types of investigations.