Patients learn about research at the Lung Center and about opportunities for participation in clinical trials, during their clinic visits. We have successfully recruited and interviewed 380 patients from the ED for that project, and most are currently being followed. Responses to inquiries about participation in research studies are answered by a dedicated phone line that is manned during business hours and answered by voicemail at all other times. A research assistant responds to each inquiry immediately, using a screening instrument that inquires about potential respondents' contact information, demographics, smoking history, and medical history. Our database includes 1,600 individuals with physician-diagnosed asthma.
Local advertising takes advantage of the printed as well as the audio-visual media.
Printed media include posters placed in public information centers of local colleges and universities as well as brochures sent to selected physicians in the Philadelphia area. Printed advertising is also placed in local neighborhood newspapers and occasionally in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Audio-visual media advertisements are also placed in public serviceannouncements on television and radio. All advertising in the printed and audio-visual media has prior approval of the Institutional Review Board. Personal computers in each outpatient clinic site are linked to a dedicated file server located in the clinical research offices of the Pulmonary Division.