Leveraging a virtual community of practice to participate in a survey-based study: A description of the METRIQ study methodology

Objectives:

To power the METRIQ (Medical Education Translational Resources: Impact and Quality) Study adequately, we aimed to recruit > 200 medical students, residents, and attendings to complete a 90- to 120-minute survey by leveraging a virtual community of practice (vCoP).

Methods:

Participants were recruited using personal (conference campaign and e-mails) and online (a study website and social media campaign utilizing Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, an infographic, and a YouTube video) techniques that leveraged relationships within a virtual community or practice. Participants received weekly survey reminders for 4 weeks and at the end of the rating period. Survey completion rates were calculated.

Results:

A total of 380 potential participants completed an intake form (139 medical students, 120 residents, 121 attendings), 330 consented to participate, and 309 (81.3% of interested and 93.9% of consenting participants) completed the full survey (121, 88, and 100, respectively). The required sample size was achieved.

Conclusions:

The METRIQ Study utilized a multimodal recruitment campaign that targeted a vCoP. It recruited large numbers of participants with high completion rates. Response rates could not be calculated given the uncertainty surrounding the number of individuals invited to participate.