Optimal Online Screening for Patient Recruiting

An online screening questionnaire is a great way to recruit potential study participants.  If done correctly, the questionnaire or survey can ensure that most of the preliminary screening criteria are determined prior to the patient recruiting process. 

The online survey will ask about the age, gender and screen for the clear eliminators and also get some background in the patient's condition to help make sure that he or she fits in your study.

Take them all of the way through -- One element that we have learned after developing a significant number of these questionnaires, is that the survey should make the propective participant feel as though he or she is being considered even if you determine at the outset that there is not a fit.

For example, say you are doing a screening process where your study is looking for people with 10-20 pack-years of smoking (A pack-year is a person smoking one pack of cigarettes a day for a year).  Your trial is one where there is promising new treatment with people who have COPD.  Your screening process will likely determine the number of pack years, and then ask about exclusion (age, other diseases) and the nature of disease that the prospect has.

If your screen terminates the session with a message that the patient isn't qualified as soon as the number of pack-years is determined, you will likely create some unwanted behavior.  This is assuming that your participant is motivated to participate either because of compensation or a promising treatment. 
If you terminate them too early, they may try to re-enroll and adjust the answer to the eleminating question so that they qualify.  Or they may call or email a recruiter to understand why they aren't qualified.  Both of those can have negative impact, the first being unqualified people participating in the study, and the second increasing the recruting time and cost for your study.

Once complete, thank them and let them know they will be considered -- If you reject them in the session, many may want to call and argue the point.  It is best if you leave it open.  If you want to give those who do qualify additional feedback, that is fine, but don't let people know immediately that they do not.