Provided by Children’s Healthcare Canada in collaboration with the CHILD-BRIGHT Network
In the CHILD-BRIGHT READYorNot TM Brain-Based Disabilities (BBD) Project, we have been working with multiple stakeholders to develop and evaluate an e health application to help youth with BBD prepare for the transition from pediatric to adult health care. In this webinar, we will showcase a unique set of strategies to tackle obstacles our trial is facing due to the pandemic.
Session Objectives:
We will describe how we have adapted our approach to recruitment, training and support materials, consent and assent, and study visits.
1. Social Media recruitment. Together with our Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC), we have developed and implemented a social media recruitment strategy as a complement to our traditional clinic recruitment.
2. Online training and support materials. Research staff training is designed to be done by distance learning, completed online and uses video modules interspersed with quiz questions to test knowledge of the information covered. Similarly, the App support interface for youth participants is offered online.
3. Assent video combined with verbal consent process. Due to the pandemic, we have added a telephone verbal consent interview script and log rather than signed consent. The process begins with a video overview.
4. Conducting Study visits virtually. In the absence of in-person clinics, we have added the option to conduct study visits by phone or Zoom meeting. We will discuss ways to make virtual visits secure, and ways to establish rapport with participants, including the use of visuals to give an overview of what we will be doing together during visits.
The strategies we share in the webinar may be of interest to other researchers and research staff who are planning or conducting a research trial during the COVID-19 pandemic.
