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CCTS Recruitment Service

The CCTS offers a new service that provides investigators, students and research teams with protocol-specific guidance for recruitment, retention and community engagement of participants in clinical research. Karriem S. Watson, MD, MS, MPH is the Director of Clinical Research Recruitment, Retention and Community Engagement. This new service is supported by both the Clinical Interface Core and the Community Engagement and Research Core.

This service:

  • Provides independent research protocol evaluation to identify potential relevant recruitment population for individualized recruitment strategies and determine feasibility of community partners that may serve as relevant partners

  • Establishes recruitment and retention programs within the CCTS and lead a team of research coordinators, with specialized recruitment and retention training to work on an as needed basis for clinical investigators

  • Develops and evaluates and individualizes best practices in recruitment and retention to optimize support to investigators in a consultative manner

  • Develops and evaluates educational programs for campus-wide investigators (faculty and students) and staff regarding best practices in recruitment, retention and community engagement in clinical trials

  • Develops educational programs for the community that emphasize the importance of clinical trials and the development of a dissemination plan to keep community abreast of updates in clinical research that affect community health

  • Works with other cores within the CCTS to provide interdepartmental and interdisciplinary tools to support engagement of community with investigators in clinical research

  • Assists in the development of detailed budget for recruitment and retention including establishing costs of proposed media outlets, coordinator time and other costs associated with proposed recruitment plan

To schedule an individual consultation for evaluation or development of protocol-specific recruitment plan or to learn more about how to engage the community in your research, please contact Karriem S. Watson (312-355-4957 or kswatson@uic.edu).

To register with CCTS and request Recruitment and Retention services, please click here