238775 Track A: Recruitment and Retention

Sunday, October 30, 2011: 3:00 PM

Polly Armsby, BA , Public Health Research, Social & Scientific Systems, Inc., Durham, NC
Track A 3:00-3:30PM

The purpose of this presentation is to describe best practices for recruiting, retaining, and tracing participants in various types of epidemiology studies. An emphasis will be placed on proactive measures to maximize retention

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology

Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to list the most and least cost effective means of recruiting participants; formulate a participant recruitment strategy for various special populations; describe two ways to build in retention from the start; describe at least two ways to trace lost participants.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a research manager with twenty years of experience in various aspects of survey and health research activities, including directing and managing projects and in conducting methodological research for government, commercial, and academic clients. My experience includes the management of large-scale data collection projects, including budgeting, staffing, scheduling, training, and quality control oversight. I currently serve as the Operations Director for the Sister Study, providing direction and oversight of the large, longitudinal epidemiological study of breast cancer conducted for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. My past experience includes research with household, patient, establishment, physician and institution samples on topics including breast cancer, drug and alcohol abuse, tobacco use, weight control, sexual health, mental health, respiratory ailments, and immunization. I have expertise in telephone, IVR, mail, in-person and web-based data collection methodologies and experience in the design and performance of disease, product, and safety registry programs to address post-approval regulatory requirements and to support research activities related to environmental exposures. I have conducted several post-marketing drug studies, including health outcomes research, burden of illness and epidemiological screening studies. I have led or contributed to over twenty research papers, peer reviewed publications, lectures and presentations made at graduate programs and professional research organizations including, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Computers in Human Behavior, the International Field Directors and Technologies Conference, the Association for Survey Computing, the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, the Transportation Research Board, the Odum Institute, and the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at UMass Boston.
Any relevant financial relationships? Yes

Name of Organization Clinical/Research Area Type of relationship
Social & Scientific Systems Epidemiology Employment (includes retainer)

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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