It can be hard to know how to best recruit for your study goals and population. OCTRI Recruitment can help! Meet with our team for a complimentary recruitment consult to discuss your recruitment needs and goals and help you create a strategy tailored to your study.  To schedule a recruitment consultation, or for questions about the resources described here, please email octrirecruitment@ohsu.edu. 

• Recruitment Consultation FAQs

OCTRI Resources 

• Cohort discovery for count requests: A web-based tool for identifying patient cohort counts from Epic data for preparatory to research purposes, including recruitment. 

• Research Data Warehouse: A repository of Epic data from patients and research subjects that provides access to over 2.5 million patient records and 40,000 data points.  

• Research tools in Epic: These may be useful in recruiting patients for research studies, such as MyChart or Best Practice Advisories.  

• Clinical Research Development Team: Experienced clinical research staff and faculty available to meet to discuss research project development, implementation, or ongoing challenges and provide overall advice regarding operations best practices, tools and connections to streamline and guide your research project.  

• Research Volunteer Registry and Biorepository: OCTRI maintains a registry of people interested in participating in OHSU research. Investigators can request contact information for potential participants or blood, urine, stool and saliva specimens.  

• Study coordinators: OCTRI study coordinators are experienced in traditional and innovative recruitment methods and in high demand due to their professionalism, attention to detail, resourcefulness and strong track record of successfully recruiting participants for studies. 

• Community Outreach, Research and Engagement (CORE): OCTRI's CORE team provides community-based support in rural Oregon to facilitate community-engaged research and assist academic researchers in developing community-based partnerships. 

• ResearchMatch: A national project developed by institutions affiliated with the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) and facilitated at OHSU by OCTRI. Researchers can sign up for Feasibility Access to see aggregate data within the registry population or Recruitment Access to identify volunteers who are a good match for their study. You can register as an investigator, read the Researcher FAQ, or contact the OCTRI Navigator to learn more. 

• Trial Innovation Network: The Clinical and Translational Science Award program has established the Trial Innovation Network to assist investigators planning and conducting multi-site research.  

Clinical research has historically underrepresented and excluded certain populations. Individuals and groups have experienced this exclusionary behavior due to their race, ethnicity, age, sexual and/or gender identity, socio-economic status, development and disabilities, and geographic region. Our program, as a part of the NIH CTSA grant model titled “Integrating Special Populations” (ISP), works to change this.

OCTRI’s ISP team is invested in providing education and guidance to help research teams develop an inclusive and representative research plan, aligned with the demographics of the disease being studied, that is compliant with NIH policies and provides a good foundation for excellence in scientific progress. Our program has a special emphasis on inclusive research across the lifespan. Read more about the NIH policy on inclusion across the lifespan or peruse our Recruitment Resources and Guidance section below to learn more about including representative populations in research.

Additional Resources for Older Adult Inclusion

• NCATS Inclusion of Older Adults in Research Toolkit - As a member of the NCATS Inclusion of Older Adults Working Group, OCTRI ISP helped to create this 8-part toolkit aimed at increasing the inclusion of older adults into research by equipping investigators with easily accessible training materials. Topics discussed include: reasons for and benefits of inclusion; study design and statistical analysis strategies; morbidity and medication research implications; adapting study procedures; community-engaged research; and much more.

• NIA Recruiting Older Adults into Research (ROAR) Toolkit – A toolkit of easy-to-use, customizable materials featuring information on the importance of research for healthy aging, study information for research volunteers, and easy steps to take. The toolkit is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

• NIA Alzheimer’s & Dementia Outreach, Recruitment & Engaged Resources (ADORE) Toolkit – A repository containing hundreds of resources to support the engagement, recruitment and retention of individuals with Alzheimer’s and related dementias into research.

Protocol feasibility checklist: For investigators who need to evaluate the feasibility of conducting an industry-sponsored study at OHSU

Cohort Discovery: Gain access to an online tool to query the electronic health record at OHSU. By using this drag and drop web based tool you can better understand the number of possible candidates for your research study. Note that this tool is only available to OHSU employees and training is required.

General guidance

Recruitment plan worksheet: Building a participant profile 

Recruitment materials and methods- List of recruitment methods and materials that can be used for research studies 

Health literacy checklist for research communication

Research recruitment guidance during modified operations

Representative recruitment images - Sources for inclusive photos at low to no cost 

Population-specific guidance

Gender affirming practices in clinical research - brought to you in collaboration with OHSU Transgender Health Program

Disease demographics: Ensuring participant demographics match disease demographics - newly expanded version!

Including older adults in research- newly expanded version!

Including pediatric populations in research

Including underrepresented groups in research

Method-specific guidance

Using social media for participant recruitment

Electronic health record (EHR) recruitment tools: Determining which tool is best for your study-recently updated to include SlicerDicer!

Methods and best practices for recruiting in the community-recently updated to include Affiliate Research Program info!

Digital recruitment - A short video describing digital strategies for research recruitment 

Developing Inclusive and Representative Research Populations (Jul. 13, 2022)

• Presentation slides
• Recording 

Diversity in Recruitment: Including Underrepresented Groups in Research (Jan. 22, 2020)

• Presentation slides
• Echo 360 Recording

Social Media and Subject Recruitment: How to make it work for you (Feb. 28, 2019) 

• Presentation slides
• Echo 360 Recording

Including Older Adults in Research - Implementing the NIH Lifespan Policy & Recruitment Strategies (Feb. 5, 2019) 

• Presentation slides 
• Echo 360 Recording 

2018 Recruitment Survey Results and OCTRI Recruitment Toolkit Launch (Jan. 24, 2019) 

• Presentation slides

StudyPages is an online, participant friendly platform that changes how institutions like OHSU and its study teams find and engage with people interested in research. The platform is already successfully being used by other academic medical centers throughout the U.S.

Study teams can create and publish listings for their eligible studies that provide the public with engaging, understandable information and allows for teams and potential participants to easily connect. To learn more about using the platform for your study(ies), read the OHSU StudyPages Training Manual (coming soon!), attend a training session, or email octrirecruitment@ohsu.edu. To access your account, visit the platform and use your OHSU credentials to log in.      

Are you a community member or external provider interested in research opportunities at OHSU, visit our gallery (coming soon!) for a complete listing of available study opportunities. For general questions about using StudyPages to find available studies, or questions about participating in research studies at OHSU, please email octrirecruitment@ohsu.edu.