A Ripple Science case study

Thirty-year Public Health Cohort Study Team from Johns Hopkins IMPROVES PARTICIPANT RETENTION, CUSTOMER SERVICE AND EFFICIENCY The George W. Comstock Center for Public Health Research and Prevention is part of Johns Hopkins University located in Hagerstown, Maryland. The Center is directed by Dr. Josef Coresh, MD, PhD with a staff of 30 run by Director of Operations, Melissa Minotti, MPH, RPSGT, CCRC.

The Center has a rich history of collaborative and innovative studies. One of their flagship studies is the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) which is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and conducted in four U.S. communities including Washington County, Maryland. The Comstock Center began recruiting for ARIC in November 1986. At the time, they recruited 4,020 participants between the ages of 45 and 64 who were in generally good health and lived within the geographic region. Today these participants, many of them in their 90’s, are still coming to the Comstock Center for their study visit sessions.

Retaining 4,000 study participants for over 30 years is no small feat. In fact, the team was just getting by using multiple spreadsheets, reports and disparate databases that were managed locally and by their coordinating center (UNC-Chapel Hill). One of the defining factors of the ARIC cohort at Comstock is the number of ancillary studies that come out of each wave of data collection, which has been upwards of seven additional studies.

ripplescience.com 1 © 2020 Ripple Science. All rights reserved.

When the team began contacting participants for the 2018 ARIC study visit, they had much more to manage than in past collections. In addition to the wave of data collection, which already included thousands of annual data collection calls and hundreds of reminder calls for ARIC, seven new ancillary studies were added. These new ancillary studies needed participants who would be recruited from the existing ARIC pool. Melissa Minotti explained that her team needed a tool that tracked ARIC participants and also helped with participant recruitment into ancillary studies. They needed an easy to use, centralized database to maintain up-to-date participant information to support the ongoing ARIC efforts, track the ancillary study recruitment and screening process, and continue to support Comstock Center’s mission to provide excellent service to their participants.

Identifying and transitioning to a new software solution was not an easy task. The initial thought was to seek out telemarketing agencies or similar software to help with participant tracking, but they found nothing applicable. After seeing one demo of Ripple, moving forward was quick. “The Ripple team had knowledge of what it was like to complete research and execute protocol. They understood the terminology and knew what we needed,” explained Minotti. Comstock had the daunting task of importing 30-years of data into Ripple. Many of Comstock’s employees were not even as old as the data. To make sure the data was accurate, the Ripple Science team partnered with Minotti to review, clean and fix many inconsistencies prior to uploading the final data set to their Ripple account. “The transition to Ripple was easy,” explained Minotti. “Ripple allowed the team to focus on the participants without worrying about what spreadsheet or database

ripplescience.com 2 © 2019 Ripple Science. All rights reserved.

Problem:To track and recruit participants, Comstock Center was using multiple spreadsheets, reports and disparate databases that were managed locally and by their coordinating center.

Solution: Ripple provided a centralized database for the team to maintain up to date information for recruiting and tracking participants.

Benefits: + Easy participant tracking.

+ Recruit to ancillary studies from existing Registry.

+ Maintain up to date participant information.

+ Track ancillary study recruitment and screening process.

+ Enables team to provide excellent customer service.

+ Platform for team communication.

+ Ripple team understands how to complete research and execute protocol.

had the correct details about each participant. That information is all in the registry.”

Ripple provides Comstock researchers and staff a 360-degree view of each participant, easilytracking ARIC participants, as well as the recruitment and screening process for ancillary studies. “Ripple really shifted our perspective from an individual in a single study to a whole-participant.We used to have a challenge where a participant was called multiple times during the sameweek for different studies. With Ripple, we are able to minimize contacting the participants even though some are enrolled in seven ancillary studies, their annual follow-up and ARIC semi-annual follow-up calls.”

The team is also able to manage sensitive topics, such as the widow of a deceased participant who may not want to be contacted for some time after their spouse’s passing. Ripple manages all of those details and provides notifications when it’s time to get in touch with that person again. With everything centralized and streamlined, the Registry relieved the burden initially felt by many of the participants who were involved in multiple studies. It also helped the team meet their recruitment targets for these projects.

The Comstock team found that using Ripple also reduces staff burden, duplication of work, and allows them to deliver excellent service to their participants. Minotti clarified, “These people are participating in research because they feel it’s important, and in turn, we want to provide excellent customer service to this all-volunteer cohort. Ripple helps us do that by providing a patient centric experience, regardless of which and how many studies in which a subject participates.”

The Comstock team frequently recommends Ripple to other field centers. Ripple‘s workflow gets participants through the recruitment process faster, in turn, enabling the “first patient in” faster.Minotti affirmed, “We haven’t found anything else like Ripple. It’s a necessary tool for participantrecruitment, tracking and retention. Everyone else seems to have found a workaround, but if youuse something that’s specifically developed for participant recruitment, tracking and retention,it makes your job so much easier.”

ripplescience.com 3 © 2020 Ripple Science. All rights reserved.

“ The transition to Ripple was easy.” — Melissa Minotti, MPH, RPSGT, CCRC

Director of Operations, The George W. Comstock Center