November 10, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is one of 52 institutions participating in ResearchMatch.org, the first national, disease-neutral, volunteer recruitment registry. ResearchMatch is a not-for-profit Web site that brings together researchers and people who are willing to learn more about research studies in a secure and convenient manner.
People in Birmingham and Alabama who want to participate in research studies can now connect online with researchers at UAB and nationwide by joining ResearchMatch. The site is the product of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Consortium, which is led by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The CTSA is a national network of 46 medical research institutions, including UAB, working together to improve the way biomedical research is conducted across the country.
"Many people would consider participating in research but do not know how to find studies that are right for them," said Lisa Guay-Woodford, M.D., director of the UAB Center for Clinical & Translational Science (CCTS). "At the same time, important studies are sometimes forced to end before they are completed because researchers cannot find enough people to participate. This wastes time and resources, and can delay new health treatments/advances from becoming available to patients now and in the future.
"That is why we have joined with others across the country to create an easy-to-use tool that can help address this problem while protecting privacy - a secure place where people can be matched with research studies," Guay-Woodford said. "We are proud to be working with institutions across the country to improve human health through transformation of the institutional infrastructure to enhance the efficiency and quality of clinical and translational research."
How does ResearchMatch work?
ResearchMatch will "match" any interested individual residing in the United States with researchers who are approved to recruit potential research volunteers through the system. After an individual has self-registered to become a volunteer, ResearchMatch's security features ensure that personal information is protected until volunteers authorize the release of their contact information to a specific study that may be of interest to them. Volunteers are simply notified electronically that they are a possible match and then make the decision regarding the release of their contact information.
For the first year of the project, only researchers affiliated with participating CTSA institutions may be eligible to utilize the recruitment tool, but plans exist to ensure the recruitment tool will be available beyond the CTSA by 2011. A complete list of participating institutions may be viewed here.
Kathleen Powell, Ph.D., CCTS research subject advocate, serves as UAB's institutional liaison for ResearchMatch. To register, go online to ResearchMatch.org.
About UAB
Known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center whose professional schools and specialty patient care programs are consistently ranked as among the nation's top 50; find more information at www.uab.edu and www.uabmedicine.org.