[This article has been auto-translated from our Dutch blog]
March 2020. The coronavirus has plunged into chaos and uncertainty in the (medical) world. The newly established CAPACITY consortium is eagerly looking for medical centres that want to participate in its COVID-19 study. CAPACITY calls on Consortius for effective online communication. Six months later, the mission turns out to be a success.
The CAPACITY study is a large international clinical-scientific study, created to investigate links between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases. At the height of the corona pandemic in March 2020, the consortium will be set up at lightning speed. The initiators are major Dutch players in the field of cardiovascular diseases: Dutch CardioVascular Alliance (DCVA), Heart Foundation, Federation Medical Specialists and various professional associations and specialist cardiovascular organizations.
Because of the enormous workload in hospitals at that time, it is important to get potential study participants over the line as quickly and effectively as possible.
Main website goals
The consortium asks Consortius to create the website. It serves four main objectives:
- Provide information about the CAPACITY study.
- Make all necessary documents and forms available online.
- Offer accessible online registration of participants.
- Educate patients about the study.
Bilingual
The website is aimed at both national and international target groups and is therefore bilingual: in Dutch and English. In order to make participation in the study as accessible as possible, we choose to inform briefly and vigorously and to make all necessary documents for study participation available directly and clearly via the website. An infographic clearly maps the steps to be taken and for patients a separate information page has been added with Q&A. You can sign up directly via the form on the contact page of the website. The design is simple and clean. Tabs create additional overview.
Success formula
The website will receive the first 50 applications within five days. Within six months, the study included 7,100, 6,500 follow-up patients across 74 centers in 13 countries. The first study results will be published in early October 2020, and the consortium can look forward to a lot of media attention.
Modest resources
This example shows once again that effective science communication can also be done by modest means. With a relatively simple, smart communication strategy and a lot of committent from the organizations involved and their employees you can get far! We at Consortius are pleased that we have been able to contribute to this important study and are quite proud of the beautiful result.
Check out the CAPACITY study website here.
Read all about the consortium’s first study results here.