Introduction
The MyChart Recruitment Service is a collaboration between data analysts, experts in recruitment methods, and clinical researchers that offers a secure method of electronically recruiting potential research participants. Target populations are identified and reached through database queries that are embedded in Epic. Potential participants are messaged via their activated Johns Hopkins MyChart account. Team members at the Recruitment Innovation Unit (RIU) within The Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) work together to manage this service. Our goal is to support ongoing research at Johns Hopkins, while also empowering and engaging patients by connecting them with clinical research studies that may be of interest to them.
Study Team Satisfaction
Among the study teams that have utilized our Service, 100% agreed that they would recommend the MyChart Recruitment Service to others or use it in future projects. Additionally, 100% of the teams reported that they were very satisfied with the quality of support provided by the Service.
How to Get Started
Inquiries to utilize our Service should be sent to our Program Manager, Cassie Lewis-Land, at Research_Recruitment@jhu.edu. Please note that approval from our Service committee must be received prior to submission to the IRB.
Our Publications
For more information on our Service/this recruitment method, please see our publications:
Gleason, K. T., Ford, D. E., Gumas, D., Woods, B., Appel, L., Murray, P., … Dennison Himmelfarb, C. R. (2018). Development and preliminary evaluation of a patient portal messaging for research recruitment service. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 2(1), 53–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2018.10
Miller, H. N., Gleason, K. T., Juraschek, S. P., Plante, T. B., Lewis-Land, C., Woods, B., … Dennison Himmelfarb, C. R. (2019). Electronic medical record-based cohort selection and direct-to-patient, targeted recruitment: Early efficacy and lessons learned. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(11), 1209–1217. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz168
Plante, T. B., Gleason, K. T., Miller, H. N., Charleston, J., McArthur, K., Himmelfarb, C. D., … Juraschek, S. P. (2020). Recruitment of trial participants through electronic medical record patient portal messaging: A pilot study. Clinical Trials (London, England), 17(1), 30–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774519873657
Frequently Asked Questions
Patients that can be identified through the sole use of EMR data. These data include demographic information, ICD9/10 codes, and healthcare utilization patterns.
In the past, report sizes have ranged between 400 and 20,000 patients. This number is based upon your study’s eligibility criteria.
The average response rate is 3.8%. The effectiveness of this method can differ by population of interest and trial commitments.
There are three components of the service that will incur costs
- You are provided 2 hours of consultation from the Recruitment Innovation Unit. After you exceed these 2 hours, you will be charged $55/hour.
- You are provided 2 hours of consultation from the Core for Clinical Research Data Acquisition (CCDA) to discuss your query. After you exceed these 2 hours, you will be charged $85/hour. In addition, you will be charged $85/hour by this team as they build the computable phenotype/query. A computable phenotype is a structured EMR data that identifies a population via demographics, healthcare utilization, and/or ICR9/10 codes. This generally takes 10 hours.
- You will be charged $118/hour from the Epic team to embed the query into Epic. This takes roughly 3 hours.
The majority of the work by the study team is completed in the preliminary steps of the process. After the team has IRB approval and the report is generated, the team will establish a timeline and calendar with the MyChart team members. From that point, the MyChart team will handle the sending of messages on a regular basis. A customized REDCap survey will be provided to each study team to track the inquiries.
A regular calendar will be established with the MyChart team as you begin. Depending on the size of the report, different frequencies can be established. Study teams choose different frequencies, ranging from every week to every month. This can be adjusted throughout the process.
Our Study Teams
Principal Investigator | Study Topic/Title | Population | Currently Recruiting |
Kelly Gleason | Leveraging the Patient’s Experience to Improve Diagnosis | Adults (>18) | Yes |
Amanda Fadar | Early detection of pre-cancer and cancer of the uterus | Adult Women (30-80) | Yes |
Corinne Keet | Early Peanut Introduction- Translation to Clinical Practice | Infants and pediatrics (0-8) | Yes |
Robert Findling and Marco A. Grados | Adolescent Mood Disorders | Pediatrics/Adolescents | No |
Tammy Brady | EMPower: Electronic Media Powering positive health changes in youth | Adolescents | No |
Christopher Earley | Anemia in females | Adults (>18) | Yes |
Mark C. Liu | Cathelicidin and Vitamin D: Impact on Populations At-Risk and with COPD | Young to Older Adults (18-80) | No |
Nadia Hansel | Clinical Trial of Air Cleaners to Improve Indoor Air Quality and COPD Health | Middle-Aged &Older Adults (>40) | No |
Susan Carnell | Brain and food | Pediatrics (3-13) | No |
Jennifer Payne | Perinatal Mood Disorders | Pregnant Women | Yes |
Pete Miller III | The Diet Gout Trial | Adults (>18) | No |
Kelly Gleason |
| Adults | No |
Lawrence Appel | STURDY: Fall reduction and Vitamin D | Older Adults (>70) | No |
Paul Rosenberg | BDPP Treatment for Mild Cognitive Impairment and prediabetes or Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus | Middle-Aged & Older Adults (50-80) | No |
Nicola Heller | Immune Cell Biology and Function in allergic disease | Young to Middle-aged Adults (18-45) | No |
Wendy Bennet | Daily 24 study | Adults (>18) | No |
Sheela Magge | Cardiometabolic health in adolescents of south Asian ancestry | Adolescents | No |
Karen Seymour | Neurobehavioral Correlates of Frustration in ADHD | Adolescents | No |
Michelle Eakin | The Medication Adherence Research in COPD (MARC) study | Adults (>18) | No |