Identification and screening
How VCOTT, the Vanderbilt Collaborative for Obesity Trials and Translational science, finds eligible patients for its trials.
Approach
Candidates for VCOTT's investigator-initiated trials are identified through the electronic health record (Epic, known at VUMC as eStar), rather than by waiting for eligible patients to be seen in clinic during enrollment. Each protocol's eligibility criteria that can be computed from the record are applied to the patient population using real-time data, and the study team confirms eligibility before anyone is contacted.
Method
Identification. For each trial, a custom report can be built in eStar from the protocol's inclusion and exclusion criteria. The report runs on real-time data and can include upcoming appointments, each patient's research contact preference, and patient portal status, which helps the team choose the right way to reach each candidate.
Review. Before any contact, a member of the study team reviews each candidate's record against the full eligibility criteria.
Contact. Eligible candidates are invited primarily through study invitations sent centrally through My Health at Vanderbilt, VUMC's patient portal, which describe the study and let patients indicate interest directly. The study team can also message candidates through the portal, and follows up with every patient who responds. Where appropriate, candidates may also be reached by telephone, by letter, or at a scheduled clinic visit.
Privacy and oversight
Every use of the health record for recruitment is approved by the Institutional Review Board before it begins, including the wording of every message patients receive, and access is limited to study personnel approved by the IRB. VUMC patients may be contacted about research unless they have asked not to be, and outreach is limited to patients whose preference allows it. Taking part in research is always voluntary, and declining does not affect a patient's care.
Measurement
Screening yield before and after automated identification is being measured. Results will be reported here once they are available.
Why it matters for new studies
Each new protocol receives its own report, built to its eligibility criteria, but the surrounding workflow is already established and reused: IRB language, outreach procedures, and follow-up of interested patients. Adding a study therefore means defining its criteria and approvals, not assembling a new recruitment operation.