Living Without HepC

And here’s another email – this one – well, I feel somewhat ambivalent about what I’m reading:

Dear Ron,

You have received this letter because we think that you might be able to help with some market research that we are conducting in the area of Hepatitis C.

…….alright so far

We conduct research for pharmaceutical companies on a range of different topics. Pharmaceutical companies are always trying to improve their treatments and make them easier to take.

………hmm, and make bigger profits in the market place

Therefore in any type of research, the opinions of the people who actually take the medications are very important.

……. So not a new medication then, just research about current medication.

In this case, we are very interested to talk people who are living with Hepatitis C.

…..somehow missing the point that this blog is called Living Without Hepatitis C and I no longer have the virus

What we would like to explore is their experiences with their condition and the challenges that they currently face. We’d also like to gain some feedback on what they think could be done to make taking their medication easier.

…… hmm, that could be TCM for all I know – reminds me of all those snake-oil salesmen who used to show up on my Forum with products to make living with Hepatitis C easier.

We would like to run the research in two parts. The first part will concentrate on the patients’ day-to-day experiences.
We will supply them with a diary, which we would like them to complete each day for a week. The diary will only take about 10 minutes per day to complete.

The second part requires their participation in a group telephone discussion about Hepatitis C.
We would like to hold these discussions in groups of three (plus a researcher), where they will be able to interact with other people who may have had similar experiences to theirs, and they will be given the opportunity to point out how their experiences may differ.
These discussions will last approximately 90 minutes and because they will be over the phone, the participants will not be required to travel anywhere / leave their home.
These discussions will be held by an experienced researcher, with an interest in finding out what is important to the patients.
If, during the discussion, they feel uncomfortable with anything at all, they are encouraged to make this known to the researcher. The participants will not be forced to say or share anything that they are not 100% happy with.

The very nature of market research is that there are no right or wrong answers, as everybody’s experiences are unique.
What we would like from the participants is their honest opinions and thoughts. We will of course reward them for their time with a payment of $200, payable upon completion of the research.

…….. that’s $200 for a 90 minute discussion and seven 10 minute entries in a diary. Not a bad rate of pay for 2 1/2 hours work. Fairer than some of the other “rent-a-patient” research projects I’ve been approached about. Quite why it is in dollars when the contact person is in the UK with a UK company logo is unclear. But the way the current exchange rate is going I guess that’s advantageous.

Market research also requires us to protect the identities of anybody involved.
For this reason, we will not pass their details onto anybody, and they will not be contacted as a result of anything that they may have said during the discussion.
All responses will be kept 100% confidential. We would really appreciate if you could pass on this invitation to some patients and make them aware about this current study, in case they may be interested in taking part.

If you decide that you would like to be involved in this research, then please contact our recruiter…..

……hmm, well I doubt I’m really in their target group now. Regardless of that, I am very ambivalent about this type of research.

How would you respond to such an invitation?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 10:07 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.