Effectiveness and Cost of Recruiting Participants to a Research Registry Using an Emergency Department Research Associate Program

We identified a novel way to recruit participants into a research registry by using an Emergency Department Research Associate (EDRA) Program. Research associates working in the Emergency Department at Strong Memorial Hospital approached patients and family members to enroll into the University of Rochester Research Participant Registry and for ResearchMatch.org. We found that 73% of individuals (574/781) approached agreed to register for either one or both registries. Those who registered were more diverse than individuals who registered through other methods. Overall, using EDRAs to enroll adult patients and their family members is an effective method for growing research participant registries.