New ResearchMatch Kiosk at UK HealthCare at Turfland

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 27, 2016) – A new kiosk at UKHealthCare at Turfland allows patients and visitors to join ResearchMatch, a free, secure, national registry that connects interested individuals with a vast array of health research opportunities around the country. More than 89,000 volunteers and 3,000 researchers at 115 institutions create the ResearchMatch community that makes health discoveries possible.

Health research is essential to improving healthcare and wellbeing, but many studies end too early because there are too few participants. Even though there are many people who want to join research studies, it’s sometimes difficult to find the right match for them or their family.  ResearchMatch is an effort to address this problem by making it easier for volunteers and researchers to find one another.

Many studies are looking for healthy people of all ages, while some studies are looking for people with specific health conditions. This means that everyone can be the perfect research match. Participating in research is a way to make a difference in the future of health care and to engage more actively with your own health.

Joining ResearchMatch is quick, confidential, and open to everyone regardless of age or health status. Members of ResearchMatch are notified by email about studies that might interest them, ranging from surveys to clinical trials, and then they choose if they would like to learn more or participate.

Promoting access to ResearchMatch reflects UK’s commitment to improving lives through research and becoming one the nation’s best public research universities. The kiosk is hosted by the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), which is funded by the National Institutes of Health to accelerate the translation of discoveries into tangible advances for human health. The UK CCTS focuses especially on health concerns of Kentucky and Central Appalachia.  ResearchMatch was developed by our partners at Vanderbilt University.

To learn more and join ResearchMatch, visit the website or stop by the kiosk at UKHealthCare at Turfland. If you have questions about ResearchMatch or participating in research, please contact Roxane Poskin, CCTS Participant Recruitment Manager, at roxane.poskin@uky.edu or 859 257-7856.

MEDIA CONTACT: Mallory Powell, Mallory.powell@uky.edu