Office of Clinical Research

As part of our patient outreach, OCR has created and maintains a Facebook social media page for research studies and clinical trials at Penn Medicine.

For social media consultations for research teams, contact Maha Dutt at OCR (mdutt@upenn.edu) Choose between Mondays (10:30-12:30), or Fridays (12-1:30pm)

This Facebook page, called “Clinical Research at Penn”; will allow research teams to advertise their clinical trials and research studies. It also allows patients another avenue to connect with Penn research teams and seek research volunteer opportunities. Besides research participation, this page will also provide links to research interviews, articles, patient research events happening at Penn.

You may already know of our other patient engagement avenues: iConnect-trial listing and search platform, CureTalks @ Penn - the online radio interview blog, and the new website “Clinical Research @ Penn”. 

Guidelines for Facebook Post Request (For Research Teams only):

• Submitted research study posts will be reviewed and posted on the “Clinical Research at Penn” page on a first come; first served basis.
• Use this RedCap form to make your request.
• Post must have weblink that has more information about study (Example: iConnect page, CT.gov, sponsor website). Page must contain description, basic risk- benefit information, compensation and time on study.
• Links to REDCap questionnaires/ surveys or direct links to abbreviated consents are NOT permitted.
• IRB approval – wording for the post and the content on the weblink must be IRB approved.
• Previously approved IRB recruitment text (i.e. text approved for another recruitment medium that is being requested as a post) would not need re-submission.
• Image (or relevant video) is highly recommended and may be required depending on content (posts with only words don’t get much attention unfortunately).
• If a patient or a participant has a question specific to your study or the post, OCR will contact the submitter or PI directly for a response.
• Failure to respond to OCR within 24-48 hours will result in suspension of future posts to the page.

Guidelines for Facebook Ad/ Advertisement Request (For Research Teams only):

• Trial/ Research study must be listed on iConnect as “Recruiting”.
• Submitted research study Ads will be reviewed and posted on the “Clinical Research at Penn” page on a first come; first served basis.
• Request a Facebook post first. Post guidelines above apply.
  • Use this RedCap form to make your request
  • Choose “Paid Facebook Ad” under Posting Type
• A credit card is required to place Facebook Ads. This could be a Department credit card. Please inquire with your Department’s Business Administrator or Business Office.
• Create an iConnect campaign tracker for Ad metrics.
• Determine who in your research team will be the point person to respond to inquiries that come from the Facebook ad. This delegate must have an active/ in-use Facebook personal account. The delegate must be familiar with the basics of how to use Facebook.
• This delegate will be responsible for responding to the public about study details, questions and addressing grievances.
• Set up a 30-minute phone call to review Ad guideline/ Dos, Don’ts with OCR, obtain a mock version of the Ad for IRB approval, and language about communicating with participants via social media. Contact psom-ocrops@pobox.upenn.edu
• Obtain IRB approval for the Ad – if approval has been received for Facebook/ social media before without content for the Ad, you may need to re-submit to the IRB for approval. Studies with an Exempt status from the IRB, may not need to submit a modification, please check with your IRB analyst to confirm.

Help spread the word about Research at Penn Medicine:

If your department or group has its own social media presence, do not forget to tag and cross-post using the hashtag #ClinicalTrialsAtPenn or tag using “@ClinicalTrialsAtPenn”. Also Like, Follow, and Share our page and posts to increase visibility.

We look forward to bringing you and the patient community lots of great information and keeping in touch.

For social media consultations for research teams, contact Maha Dutt at OCR (mdutt@upenn.edu) Choose between Mondays (10:30-12:30), or Fridays (12-1:30pm)

Questions? Concerns. Please email psom-ocr@pobox.upenn.edu or call 215-662-4484

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