Strategies with positive impact | |
Offered PCPs detailed instructions on methods to identify potentially eligible participants via query of the provider’s EMR using billing codes or medications fields | |
Created a standardize form that providers could fax to the provincial administrative billing system which would query their historical billing codes and generate a list of potential patients to invite, with costs of this query covered by the study office | |
Created and shared a telephone script which provider’s office staff could use to contact patients and obtain a verbal consent to be contacted by the study office, who could then explain the study and consent the participant | |
Offered a “no-survey option” for patients who initially declined participation (i.e., highlight that the completion of patient questionnaires and the 12-month diary were voluntary) | |
Employed various strategies to recognize and incentivize PCPs that were top patient recruiters (e.g., Thank you letters, study update communications, special invitation to participate in a “Canadian Science Forum” investigator event) | |
Sought guidance from top recruiting PCPs on the methods they had utilized to successfully recruit their patients (these details informed revisions to various patient communication tools) | |
Developed and published mainstream media communications to create awareness of the study, including multiple interviews with news outlets (television, radio) and opinion piece submissions to both local community-based and provincial newspapers | |
Utilized study and non-study (e.g., stakeholder partners’) social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, a dedicated study website (www.impact-af.ca) and other sites (e.g., “Kijiji”) to promote the study | |
Hired a public relations summer student to support communication efforts | |
Strategies with little to no impact | |
Invited consented study patients to speak with relatives and friends about the study | |
Offered in-office visits by study staff to facilitate introductory and consent discussions with eligible patients | |
Created a faxable letter to community pharmacies to potentially identify patients prescribed oral anticoagulant (warfarin or non-vitamin K antagonist) therapy | |
Provision of pre-stuffed information packages with postage and instructions on ways to generate a mailing list that the provider could use to distribute information pamphlets | |
Provision of information pamphlets and posters that could be placed in providers’ offices as well as community blood collection sites | |
Created customized yet personalized letters using the provider’s office logo/letter head (with their consent) to accompany the patient information pamphlets handed and or mailed out | |
Provided routine status updates to PCPs on their recruitment stats, as well as that of their peers and the study overall | |
Strategies with negative impact | |
Conducted follow-up telephone calls with study participants |