... for our health Peggy O’Halloran, MPH University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine Setting up the Wisconsin Primary Care Clinician Survey Group

Outline Background Recruitment Surveys ▪ Consent/IRB issues ▪ Topics ▪ Design and Deployment Successes Challenges Next Steps

Background PBRNs rely on member response to surveys to describe attitudes, knowledge and practices ▪ Important for grant writing, deciding which projects to take on, research, and influencing policy

Background WREN switch to e-surveys in mid 2000s ▪ Pro: WREN uses e-surveys due to low cost and ease of distribution ▪ Con: Lower response rates with e-surveys ۰ Decreasing response to WREN and WAFP surveys overall (40% BMI survey WREN; <20% WAFP) ۰ Low response rate to surveys a problem for validity and representativeness of results

Background WREN opportunity to partner with WAFP (WI Academy of Family Physicians) on survey group project to increase response rate to e- surveys ▪ Develop and retain a group of approximately 200 clinicians that will agree to reliably respond to policy and research studies

Recruitment Goal: 200 clinicians in year 1 pilot phase ▪ Physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants Recruitment Methods ▪ Round 1: Invited WREN and WAFP members by , presented at in person meetings with WREN clinics and at WAFP meeting, newsletter advertising ۰ Resulted in about 100 participants ▪ Round 2: ed information to Wisconsin Medical Society, offered incentive, invited participating members to recruit colleagues, newsletter advertising, WAFP meeting ۰ Resulted in 20 additional participants

Sample Recruitment Flier

IRB & Consent

Surveys: Topics Survey topics identified by WREN and WAFP leadership, research partners, WREN steering committee Completed ▪ CKD instrument measuring clinician comfort with care of CKD patients; Test-retest validation study ▪ Scenarios about acute pain care ▪ Attitudes about acute pain care ▪ Insurance policy readability

Surveys: Design & deployment No more than one survey each month 5 minutes or less Consistent look to surveys Brief purpose statement and survey length included in invitation and survey Initial invitation and 3 reminders for each survey Summary data provided at the close of survey

Screen shot: Intro to topic

Successes Great initial response to participation Improved response rates ▪ Average response rate = 70% Policy survey example

Successes: Policy survey Legislative proposal to roll back new regulations about readability of and electronic access to health insurance policies ▪ Hearing at the WI Office of the Commissioner of Insurance ▪ 3 question survey ▪ 59% response rate ▪ Quick turn around from deployment to use of data ▪ Positive feedback from participants on this use of group

Challenges Recruitment Volume of ; surveys get lost Retention – have lost some participants Keeping surveys short Providing feedback in a timely and useful way

Next steps Continue recruitment efforts Improve feedback – work with investigators to ensure that participants receive meaningful feedback Evaluate survey group at the end of one year Design validation study

Acknowledgements The Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians (WAFP) The University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, funded through an NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award, grant number 1 UL1 RR025011

Questions?