Abstract P5-19-05: Successful participation of veterans affairs patients in precision medicine research through passive recruitment efforts
Authors: Scheuner Maren , Sales Paloma , Frayne Susan M. , Palmieri Marcelo , Soonavala Rashna , Fiscalini Allison Stover ,   WISDOM Study/Athena Investigators,   Advocate Partners, Esserman Laura 
Published: March 2022

Background Access to clinical trials and other research opportunities is important to discovering new disease treatments and better ways to detect, diagnose, and reduce disease risk. The WISDOM (Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of risk) Study is a multi-site, pragmatic trial with web-based participation based at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) that aims to move breast cancer screening away from its current one-size-fits-all approach to one that is personalized based on each woman’s individual risk. We sought to evaluate passive recruitment efforts of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients into a precision medicine research program. Methods We created a hub and spoke recruitment model with the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) serving as the central hub of passive recruitment activities and eligible VA facilities that agreed to participate serving as the spoke recruitment sites. Eligible facilities had at least 3,000 women patients, VA clinical genetic services available, a site lead from the VA Women’s Health-Practice-Based Research Network, and mammography on site. Site participation involved permission for the research team to email eligible patients (women age 40-74 without a prior breast cancer diagnosis) about the WISDOM Study. We evaluated the effectiveness of the recruitment by assessing trends in enrollment and monitoring participation of VA patients in the WISDOM Study. The participating sites were determined to be non-engaged in human subjects research. Results Between May 24th, 2021 and June 30th, 2021, we emailed 29,470 eligible VA patients from seven participating VA facilities. Prior to the VA emailing, 2% of the total WISDOM Study population had served or was currently serving in active duty in any of the United States Armed Forces. After the first month of emails, this percentage increased to 50%. The month following VA emailing was one of the highest accruing months for the study with 2175 women registering, doubling the average of the prior three months, with VA participation accounting for over 50% of total enrollment that month. VA enrollment population was racial and ethnically diverse and changed the demographics of study enrollment. Prior to the VA emailing, the WISDOM Study population (n= 32,3278) included women who are 79% non-Hispanic White, 3% Black/African American and 9% Hispanic/Latina. Between the May 24th, 2021 and June 30th, 2021 emailing period, of the 1665 women enrolled, 64% of which were non-Hispanic White, 16% Black/African American and 12% Hispanic/Latina. Most women veterans enrolled in the study were between the ages of 40-50 (45%), which represented a younger population than the general WISDOM Study population (28%, aged 40-50). Both the VA population and general WISDOM Study population had similar levels education: 72% of the VA population had obtained a college graduate degree compared to 76% of the WISDOM study population with a college graduate degree. Conclusions The VA has recently approved email contact as a method for passively recruiting research participants. Our results demonstrate that there is substantial interest among female veterans in the WISDOM Study, and that emailing VA patients was not only feasible but an effective approach to increased study recruitment and diversity of participants. This data provides a unique opportunity for future trials to engage women veterans as precision medicine becomes a growing area of research in the VA and at academic affiliates.

Citation Format: Maren Scheuner, Paloma Sales, Susan M. Frayne, Marcelo Palmieri, Rashna Soonavala, Allison Stover Fiscalini, WISDOM Study/Athena Investigators, Advocate Partners, Laura Esserman. Successful participation of veterans affairs patients in precision medicine research through passive recruitment efforts [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-19-05.