The Study
Acumen were asked by a research agency to help with a project they were conducting on behalf of a Biopharmaceutical company. The company were seeking feedback on a new app that had developed to provide support and information to people with a range of respiratory problems.
The app, which had been designed for smartphone users, had a number of features including the ability to capture and monitor data on how patients are using their inhalers. In order to test this functionality, Acumen were asked to find participants who suffered with Asthma, and had been diagnosed over various periods of time, in addition to people living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD). All of the participants had to be using different types of inhalers in order to fully assess their user experience of the new app.
An additional element of the research involved recruiting Healthcare professionals from a variety of disciplines and specialisms. These included: Respiratory consultants; GP’s; and Nurses who specialised in respiratory ailments or were Practice Nurses working within a respiratory clinic.
Our Approach
Acumen’s Healthcare fieldwork market research team have an extensive in-house database with participants who’ve signed up to take part in market research studies. It contains healthcare professionals of all levels and specialisms in addition to information on people who have been diagnosed with a range of conditions. For a project like this, the database that the Healthcare team have built up, is an invaluable resource.
In addition to this, the team also used their presence on social media to target people who were likely to meet one or more of the quotas required for this study. Social media is an ideal resource for research that requires participants who are comfortable with smartphones and technology.
Utilising these two methods enabled the team to draw on a large pool of potential participants who were then carefully screened to ensure they all met the criteria specified by the client. The challenge on this project was in finding people who were local to the area the research was taking place in, but the combination of the team’s database and their presence online enabled them to find all the participants the client wanted to speak to.
