This doctoral-level chapter examines critical strategies and challenges in medical research data collection, focusing on participant recruitment and retention in healthcare studies. The analysis explores prostate cancer screening research and community health data collection, highlighting barriers such as participant willingness and enrollment difficulties. Key data collection methods including face-to-face interviews, surveys, and screening protocols are evaluated for effectiveness and cost considerations in medical research contexts.
In the first post, D. Jenkins opted to focus on preventing metastatic disease by early diagnosis of prostate cancer. Apart from the strategies provided by my colleague to deal with the challenges of willingness among participants and having enough enrolments, there are other strategies that can be used to increase participant’s willingness. For instance, offering education to patients before a research comes in handy in improving their knowledge on the importance of medical research (Liu and Li, 2018). In addition, medical researchers could ensure that they can be trusted by the participants so as to collect meaningful information (Liu and Li, 2018). The other population that may be used to address the said problem would be men aged above 70 years. As my colleague indicates, screening has various strengths. This assertion is collaborated by Cuzic et al. (2013), who indicates that screening is important on this front given that it leads to early detection – meaning that the screened patient can benefit from meaningful intervention. It would be prudent to note that screening may lead to over diagnosis, overtreatment and other harms associated with biopsy (Cuzic et al., 2013). Apart from screening, multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging could be used on this front.
In the second post, K. Udenze opted to focus on community health. There are various barriers in communities that may lead to difficulties in collection of sample. Apart from the strategies highlighted by my colleague, utilization of technology and securing additional resources could help reduce the barriers (Sullivan et al., 2018). It is also important to note that face-to-face interviews happen to be an appropriate method of data collection. This is more so the case given that the said method reduces participants’ attrition, increases retention of participants, and it helps maintain trust between participants and the researcher. However, the said method may not be effective given that in involves personal interviews which could be rather costly (Victorian Family Data Collection Framework, 2020). Apart from face-to-face interviews, data could also be collected via the deployment of surveys and questionnaires. In addition to being suited for larger populations, these are rather inexpensive.
Cusiz, J., Thorat, M.A., Andriole, G., Brawley, O. T., Brown, P. H., Culig, Z., Eeles, R. A., Ford, L. G., Hamdy, F. C., Holmberg, L., Ilic, D., Key, T. J., Vecchia, C. L., Lilja, H., Marberger, M., Meyskens, F. L., Minasian, L. M., Parker, C., Parnes, H. L., Perner, S., Rittenhouse, H., Schalken, J., Schmid, H-P., Schmits-Drager, B. J., Schroder, F. H., Stenzi, A., Tombal, B., Wilt, T. J. & Wolk, A. (2014). Prevention and Early Detection of Prostate Cancer. Lancet Oncol, 15(11), 484-492.
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