ResearchMatch available for study feasibility and recruitment

Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute is now offering ResearchMatch, a free tool to help researchers with study volunteer recruitment. ResearchMatch is a national online registry that connects studies with more than 127,000 willing participants.

ResearchMatch was developed by institutions affiliated with the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Consortium and is maintained at Vanderbilt University. This CTSA-funded platform allows targeted searches for potential volunteers based on demographics. Researchers can contact registered users once the study is approved by the institutional review board (IRB) including a specific ResearchMatch contact message. ResearchMatch users have the ability to accept or decline an invitation to hear more about a study. If they accept, contact information is released to the researcher.

Study personnel are welcome to explore ResearchMatch to learn more of its capabilities, or to conduct searches to see how many potential volunteers are available for an ongoing or potential study.

ResearchMatch is a complementary platform to StudyFinder, which is Penn State's search tool for the public to discover studies available locally. ResearchMatch connects studies with potential volunteers based on a user-created profile. While Studyfinder is the primary website for the public to learn about Penn State clinical research, ResearchMatch is featured and linked to from the StudyFinder home page. The StudyFinder site is heavily marketed including through search engine, radio and television advertisements.

Learn more about ResearchMatch through this article.

To access ResearchMatch:

• Visit researchmatch.org.
• Click “Researchers” at the top.
• Click the green “Register Now!” button.
• Select “The Pennsylvania State University” as the institution.
• Type in your Penn State email address.
• Retrieve verification code from your email and cut and paste it into ResearchMatch.
• Read site instructions.
• Read Researcher Acknowledgement form and click “Accept.”
• Fill in your contact and registration information.
• Continue to the next screen: Dashboard.
• Click “Find Volunteers” on the left and practice searching.

For details, email researchmatch@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

If you're having trouble accessing this content, or would like it in another format, please email the Penn State College of Medicine web department.