Celebrating 4 years of econsent!

In August 2019 the NIHR BioResource Centre in Newcastle became the first Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals (NUTH)-sponsored project to launch electronic consent.

Today, we are celebrating our 4 year anniversary and the incredible patients that have joined us electronically so far.

What is econsent?

econsent allows our volunteers to give their consent by using a computer, mobile phone, or tablet rather than traditional paper consent.

We collect and store our volunteer information on a secure system called REDCap which allows volunteers to read and sign consent forms and complete our health and lifestyle questionnaire in a user-friendly way.

What are the benefits?

• It has made the process quicker and easier for volunteers to get involved in research.

• Switching to a more modern system as made participant data become more secure than ever

• It allows us to continue working towards a more sustainable BioResource, supporting our partners at NUTH to be a ‘paperlite’ Trust.

Here in Newcastle we are also committed to inclusion for our volunteers. Using econsent has allowed volunteers who cannot easily travel to our centre, to be recruited in their own homes, and has allowed us to recruit those who struggle with traditional paper consent but who still wish to join.

Our Clinical Trials Associate, Tien Tang speaks of her experience with econsent

“We recruit a lot of participants with conditions such as arthritis, which can cause difficulties holding a pen. econsent allows them to join easily and independently”

Importantly, econsent allowed our centre to get quickly back on our feet following lockdown. While many places were still navigating social distancing and a lack of public confidence in attending hospitals, we were able to use our econsent system to recruit patients from the safety of their own homes.

What's next?

Dr Emma Raine, our BioResource Manager said

"now that econsent is a very established process for our centre, we are keen to develop and improve what we are doing, to maximise the benefit to our volunteers. We are very excited about some recent updates to the REDCap system that we hope will allow us to introduce some exciting features in the near future. We are incredibly grateful to each and every one of our volunteers and aim to continue to make it as easy as possible for them to take part in research"

Watch this space!

Interested in joining the BioResource?

We always welcome new volunteers who are interested in getting involved in research. You can contact us for more information at newcastlebioresource@ncl.ac.uk or register your interest here.