Enhancing Follow-up Rates through a Rechargable Incentive Card (RIC) System

描述(由申请人提供)：对于涉及药物滥用者的纵向实地研究，成功跟踪、定位和跟踪具有代表性的受试者样本是一项挑战。一项对85个药物滥用客户的纵向研究进行的荟萃分析发现，近三分之一的受试者在36个月内因自然减退而丧失(Hansen，Tobler，&Graham，1990)。这对药物滥用(和相关)领域的研究结果的有效性构成了重大威胁，因为低于80%的随访率被证明产生了对药物使用和犯罪的严重偏见的估计(Nemes等人，2002年)。第二阶段小型企业技术转让(STTR)提案的目的是对第一阶段开发的可充电激励卡(RIC)系统进行随机现场测试，并执行详细计划，将最终确定的一套产品和服务商业化。RIC系统包括一张当场发行的借记卡，与一个账户相连，研究人员可以在后续联系后立即在其中转移资金(无论这涉及电话或面谈、邮寄调查或提供生物样本)。该卡还包含一个免费号码，受试者可以使用该号码(最多每月一次)通知研究人员他们的定位器/联系信息的变化。这也会导致资金自动转移到受试者的RIC系统账户。这项技术是通过Calance公司和加州大学洛杉矶分校综合药物滥用计划(ISAP)的密切合作开发的。在第二阶段，同样的合作将最终确定RIC系统，将其商业化，并使用洛杉矶地区登记参加三个门诊治疗计划的药物滥用者(N=300)样本，测试其对追踪和定位受试者的随访率和工作人员时间的影响。RIC系统可用于许多研究领域中涉及药物、教育、就业和小组研究的研究，但该系统在药物滥用研究领域具有特别的前景，该领域往往涉及巡回的、难以追踪的对象-其中许多人有刑事司法史。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): For longitudinal field studies involving substance abusers, successfully tracking, locating, and following up with a representative sample of subjects is a challenge. One meta-analysis of 85 longitudinal studies of substance abuse clients found that nearly one-third of subjects were lost to attrition within 36 months (Hansen, Tobler, & Graham, 1990). This poses a significant threat to the validity of findings in the substance abuse (and related) fields, as follow-up rates below 80% have been shown to produce dramatically biased estimates of drug use and crime (Nemes et al., 2002). The purpose of this Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) proposal is to conduct a randomized field test of the rechargeable incentive card (RIC) system developed in Phase I, and to execute a detailed plan to commercialize the finalized set of products and services. The RIC System involves an on-the-spot issued debit card linked to an account in which researchers can immediately transfer funds following a follow-up contact (whether this involves telephone or in-person interviews, mail-in surveys, or provision of biological samples). The card also contains a toll-free number that subjects can use to call (as often as once a month) to notify the researchers of changes in their locator/contact information. This, too, results in an automatic transfer of funds to the subjects' RIC System account. This technology was developed though a close collaboration between the Calance Corporation and the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP). In Phase II, this same collaborative will finalize the RIC System, commercialize it, and test its impact on follow-up rates and staff time devoted to tracking and locating subjects, using a sample of substance abusers (N=300) enrolled in three outpatient treatment programs in the Los Angeles area. The RIC System could be employed in studies involving medication, education, employment, and panel studies in many research areas, but the application holds particular promise in the field of substance abuse research which often involves itinerant, hard-to-track subjects-many of whom have criminal justice histories.