One of the most frustrating things we hear from our patients is when they don’t qualify for a study. They are interested, they have great opinions to offer, and they’ve spent the time to see if they qualify. And then they are told they don’t qualify. We realize that is disappointing!
Please don’t take it personally if you don’t qualify! It might be that the study sponsor may be looking for a certain number of people who are taking a specific drug, or are of a certain age, or have been diagnosed within a certain period of time. And even if you are exactly the type of person they want, they may have wanted, say, 10 of them and they just got their 10th, so they don’t need any more.
Many people feel better when they find out why they didn’t qualify. If you are interested in finding out why, please ask the project manager, they are often able to tell you why you didn’t qualify.
Some patients feel that they spent time providing their information, and when they don’t qualify, they are upset that the data they supplied will be used in the study even though they aren’t taking part and aren’t getting compensated. Let me say, that is NOT the case. If you don’t qualify for a study, none of the information you provided can be used. We do not allow that, and we’ve never seen it happen. So please rest assured that is NOT happening.
Typically, the “screener” part of a survey, where you enter information to see if you qualify, is under five minutes. So, you may need to invest up to 5 minutes to see if you qualify for a survey. But if it goes longer than 5 minutes and you don’t qualify, please let us know. We want to make sure that if you are giving more than 5 minutes of your time, you should be rewarded. We tell the survey sponsors to make sure they ask the disqualifying questions as close to the beginning as possible so that we don’t waste your time.
Thanks for your interest in our studies. Your opinions definitely help to improve medical products and services.
