New site helps health researchers find volunteers

New health research projects find volunteers faster using NZ-developed website

Researchers say Getparticipants.com is making it possible for more NZ health research studies to find numbers crucial for success

AUCKLAND, (5th May 2010): Six months since it was launched an award-winning New Zealand start-up is already showing it is making a key difference to new health research projects by helping them much more efficiently recruit volunteers, health researchers say.

Professor Amanda Barusch at the Department of Social Work & Community Development at the University of Otago said the Getparticipants.com website found more than half the participants needed for a study on the relationships between young adults and their parents in just 12 hours.

"Recruiting problems can delay and even stop a project going ahead," Professor Barusch said. "So this has been a real time-saver. It has saved me weeks that would otherwise have been spent on recruiting. It is a huge benefit."

Professor Barusch recently posted her study, which is examining how relationships between parents and adult children are developing in times of increased longevity, on the Getparticipants.com website on a Sunday evening to find over half her volunteers had already enrolled by the time she next checked the site on Monday morning.

While the numbers needed for her study are relatively small - she is seeking 25 young adults, of whom 15 enrolled via Getparticipants in 24 hours - the site is already making a big difference in addressing a serious and long-standing problem that confronts nearly all researchers.

Dr Markus Melloh, at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, said the site had helped in making the crucial difference in whether a research project he is leading on chronic back pain could continue.

Before registering at Getparticipants he was receiving only one new enrolment a week. Now, by combining Getparticipants with his other advertising, he said he is averaging five to ten, meaning that the study which seeks to explain why some people get chronic back pain and others do not from seemingly similar injuries, can proceed.

"Getparticipants is the smartest approach I have seen anywhere to resolving the challenge of bringing researchers and volunteers together. Without it this research project would have almost certainly simply run out of time before it was able to recruit the numbers it needed."

Over 200,000 New Zealanders enrol in health studies every year, but the difficulties of linking would-be volunteers with the right study have been so great that 50%- 85% of research studies still fail to meet their recruitment targets. As a result many have to be postponed or abandoned, or incur high ongoing costs in advertising and administration.

"I am really excited by the way the site is already delivering results," Jamie Mannion, a researcher and co-founder of Getparticipants said. "Having seen for myself just how hard it can be to get volunteers I decided there had to be a better way. Lots of people want to be in studies, but still lots of studies can't find enough participants. Getparticipants brings the two together online for the first time."

Launched in December last year, Getparticipants won the SPARK New Business Idea Challenge for providing a whole new approach to a longstanding problem.

To date, over 1000 people have enrolled as potential candidates for studies on the site, more than half of whom have already put their names forward to participate in specific studies.

Getparticipants currently lists over 20 studies ranging from a cholesterol-lowering trial at Counties Manukau District Health Board to a new study of the effects of antidepressants on learning at The University of Auckland.

ENDS