Background
We sought to evaluate passive recruitment efforts of VA patients into a precision medicine research program. Access to clinical trials and other research opportunities is important to discovering new disease treatments and better ways to detect, diagnose, and reduce disease risk. The WISDOM (Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of risk) Study is a multi-site, pragmatic trial with webbased participation based at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) that aims to move breast cancer screening away from its current one-size-fitsall approach to one that is personalized based on each woman’s individual risk.
Methods
We created a hub and spoke recruitment model with the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) serving as the central hub of passive recruitment activities and eligible VA facilities that agreed to participate serving as the spoke recruitment sites. Eligible facilities had at least 3,000 women patients, VA clinical genetic services available, a site lead from the VA Women’s Health-Practice-Based Research Network, and mammography on site. Site participation involved permission for the research team to email eligible patients (women aged 40-74 without prior breast cancer diagnosis) about the WISDOM Study. We evaluated the effectiveness of the recruitment by assessing trends in enrollment and monitoring participation of VA patients in the WISDOM Study. Analysis: Pre/post frequencies of women consenting to participate in the WISDOM Study.
Results
From 5/24/2021 through 6/21/2021, we emailed 27,061 eligible VA patients from six participating VA facilities. Prior to the VA emailing, an average of 22 women per week consented to participating in the WISDOM Study and none were Veterans. After the first month of the VA emailing, an average of 186 women per week consented – a 7.5-fold increase. Additionally, during the first month of VA emailing, 81% of women registering with the WISDOM Study said they heard about the study from the VA.
Implications
The VA has recently approved of emailing as a method for recruiting research subjects. Our results demonstrate this is a feasible approach for precision medicine research, a growing area of research in VA and at academic affiliates.