Research access to clinical population

[PsychappA]

Hi all,

I have a lurking question and thought maybe someone who has been in the same situation could offer advice. I am attending a wonderful program next year, which I am very excited about. My work is very connected to the research of my future advisor, except I am interested in applying treatments he has used and research similar to that he has conducted with a clinical population other than that he has studied. He has told me that he is more than happy to let me go in that direction with my research.

The issue is that this disorder is not frequently treated at our university clinic and no one else on faculty studies this population. It is a relatively rare disorder, so community recruitment would take forever. However, there are a couple clinical facilities nearby that treat this disorder. My question is, how would I go about conducting research on a population I don't readily have access to? Is there a way to forge a connection with clinic facilities for this purpose & if so, does anyone have advice on how to do this? I have also heard not to conduct thesis/dissertation research on a clinic population because it will take forever to recruit for. Is this necessarily true?

Thanks in advance!

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[Ollie123]

Same way you connect with anyone else. Networking, networking, networking.

If they have a practicum there, do one. If they don't, just talk to people about collaborating. Faculty at your school can help as well since they may know folks over there.

Its not necessarily true that it will take forever to recruit, it depends on HOW rare, and what your access is like. If you want to run it on Parkinson's - you can get caught up for awhile unless you have a major neurology clinic nearby that has tons of folks willing to help out. Clinical populations aren't bad, but depending on what this disorder is, it can get hazy. There's no definitive answer - obviously plenty of people HAVE run studies even on rare disorders. Depends on the area, depends on your connections, depends on alot of stuff. Just realize that recruitment may take alot more effort than you thought and it can potentially delay things, that's all.