Research Recruitment & Minority Outreach

Maxine Ashby-Thompson M.P.H., Manager

Victor Grann, M.D., M.P.H., Director

Karen Schmitt, M.A., R.N., Co-Director

The Research Recruitment and Minority Outreach (RRMO) shared resource provides recruitment and follow-up of human participants in cancer research and serves as an informational resource for the community about cancer prevention, treatment, and research, with a special focus on historically under-served racial/ethnic minorities.

Specific objectives are: (1) to provide recruitment and follow-up services to investigators; (2) to attract potential study participants to the Cancer Center by working with community physicians, community organizations, and interested individuals; (3) to inform the community and medical caregivers, about state-of-the-art cancer treatment, prevention, and research results; (4) to respond to community cancer concerns and research needs; and (5) to provide colleagues with the benefit of our experience by analyzing and reporting on recruitment and follow-up results.

Services, provided by a multicultural and multilingual staff, include:

• Educating patients and the community about the importance of participating in cancer and cancer-related clinical research and observational studies
• Recruiting, screening and consenting participants into cancer clinical trials and observational studies
• Advertising available trials and recruiting patients into studies via the distribution of IRB-stamped recruitment flyers and the RRMO newsletter.
• Identifying and addressing barriers to recruitment and retention associated with ongoing studies
• Communicating with potential study participants through mailings, special events, RRMO newsletter and website