Recruiting family physicians as participants in research.
Obtaining the voluntary participation of family physicians in quality of care research is a major problem in family practice research. An innovative approach was therefore required to recruit 120 randomly selected family physicians in southern Ontario in a quality of care study by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. A network of physician recruiters oriented to the study was organized for each district. This recruitment method resulted in an 84.5% participation rate. The relationship of these physician recruiters to the candidate and the method of approach were important factors in the enrolment process: the highest participation rate (95%) was obtained when the recruiters were friends of the candidate and when a personal meeting was arranged (91%). Recruiters were given an information package to help them in the recruitment process and rated the most useful items as follows: a policy statement about confidentiality, a description of the study and reprints of a published feasibility study. These results illustrate that cooperation in research in family physicians' offices can become a reality.
Borgiel
A E
AE
College of Family Physicians of Canada, University of Toronto.
Dunn
E V
EV
Lamont
C T
CT
MacDonald
P J
PJ
Evensen
M K
MK
Bass
M J
MJ
Spasoff
R A
RA
Williams
J I
JI
D003219:Confidentiality; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D009864:Ontario; D010379:Peer Group; D010559:Personnel Management; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000379:methods*; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011897:Random Allocation; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000523:psychology*