Assessing the feasibility of recruiting a randomly selected sample of psychiatrists to participate in a national practice-based research network

This study tested the feasibility of recruiting and retaining a randomly se lected sample of psychiatrists compared to a volunteer sample to participat e in the American Psychiatric Association's Practice Research Network (PRN) . One hundred-forty psychiatrists were randomly selected and contacted by p hone by peer psychiatrists for recruitment into the PRN. As a comparison gr oup, a sample of 146 self-selected volunteer psychiatrists were also includ ed in the study. Recruited and volunteer psychiatrists were asked to partic ipate in three studies to assess study compliance and retention. The repres entativeness of each sample was evaluated by comparing the psychiatrists' s ociodemographic and practice characteristics to existing national data on p sychiatrists. Study response rates and long-term retention rates were compa red for the two groups. Sixty-one percent of the recruited sample who were eligible to participate in the network were willing to participate. Both th e recruited and volunteer samples were broadly representative of the Americ an Psychiatric Association's membership (with some differences in race, eth nicity and board certification). Of the recruited sample, 74.5% (38/51) suc cessfully completed the network's first three pilot studies compared to 72. 5% (98/135) of the volunteer sample. No psychiatrists in the recruited samp le withdrew from the network compared to 2.1% (3/138) of the volunteer samp le. These findings indicate a randomly selected sample of psychiatrists can be recruited and retained to participate in practice-based research. These methods can be used to enhance the generalizability of observational healt h services research studies, which require the participation of practicing clinicians. More effective methods should be tested to enhance participatio n rates.