Researchers should take time to ensure the best fit for the team and project, suggests Cathy

Transcript

Interviewer: For sure and thinking about the diversity of it, how do you think researchers could get out to more diverse population to make sure that they are actually having diversity in their research projects?

Difficult and I guess it depends on the research too, whether you go to community centres or cancer clinics or wherever you really want your candidates to come from. But part of it has to do too with I think with a preliminary screening of the candidates and making sure that there are not too many, but they are very specific questions to try to make sure. But you really won’t know until you actually talk to the person and we did the same thing before we set this up. We talked for a while and “Is this going to be a good fit for you? Do I have the experience you need and the same thing for me is this something that I feel I can contribute to?” 

So somehow through a survey or questionnaire or telephone contact, but how you get those people in the beginning, probably has more to do with how wide your network is of either fellow professionals or the general public. You know, notices in seniors’ papers or like I said cancer clinics or doctors’ offices and that sort of thing. 

I think some specialists are well aware of research as well. I know when my husband ran into a problem, the doctor he saw said “Are you interested in participating in this research”. So, just a big wide network that most of us know nothing about.

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