REACH BC – Connecting Researchers with Study Participants

November 1, 2022, Posted on Women's Health Research Institute at BC Women's

What is REACH BC?

REACH BC is a publicly-funded online provincial platform that matches health research opportunities with potential study participants across BC. Members of the public are connected with health researchers for opportunities to participate in research studies and as patient partners to inform various stages of the research process. Now part of Michael Smith Health Research BC, REACH BC first launched in April 2020. To date, approximately 5,000 volunteer participants and 850 researchers have signed up to use the platform. An upcoming marketing campaign will focus on increasing the recruitment of rural and remote volunteers in BC as well as building a more diverse volunteer database.

A Research Graduate Student's Experience

Malak Ibrahim, a Graduate Student in the Reproductive and Developmental Sciences program at UBC is working in the  Talhouk Lab  assisting with recruitment for the  Spot the Difference Study . Malak kindly shared her experience with using REACH BC to recruit.

1. A helpful feature on the platform is the “pause” function which allows you to pause study recruitment (i.e. put it "On Hold" status) in order to best manage the number of participants you are processing. 
2. If your study provides honoraria, something to consider is specifying what and when the honoraria are provided. This should be included in the “study details” since the study post will show participants if compensation is provided, however, there is no dedicated written section for those details.

Members of the public (adults 16+) create their free volunteer profile here,  they get to select which Health Categories are of interest to them, and they can also browse the full directory listing all studies.  Upon choosing a study to participate in, their contact information is sent to the researcher via email.  All personal volunteer information is stored on a secure encrypted server housed in BC.

How do I sign up?

Create your REACH BC researcher account here today!