To Radiation Medicine Patient:
I am contacting you from the University of Kentucky because you are a patient in our Radiation Medicine Department.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky are inviting you to take part in a survey looking at the use of cannabinoids and cannabis and integrative medicine in our patients.
Your participation is voluntary, although you may not get personal benefit from taking part in this research study, your responses may help us understand more about this area for helping patients in the future. Some volunteers experience satisfaction from knowing they have contributed to research that may possibly benefit others in the future.
Researchers will review and collect information from your survey answers. If you do not want to participate, there are other choices such as declining to take part in the study.
The survey/questionnaire will take about 15 minutes to complete.
If you complete the survey, a $30 Visa debit card will be mailed to you. You will complete a separate form that is not connected to your survey answers. Identifiable information such as your county, zip code, name and mailing address will be removed from the information collected in this study. After removal, the information may be used for future research or shared with other researchers without your additional informed consent.
Questions of a personal nature of cannabinoid usage and alternative medicines are included in this study.
Although we have tried to minimize this, some questions may make you upset or feel uncomfortable and you may choose not to answer them. If some questions do upset you, we can tell you about some people who may be able to help you with these feelings.
Your response to the survey will be kept confidential to the extent allowed by law. When we write about this study, you will not be identified.
We hope to receive completed questionnaires from about 500 people, so your answers are very important to us. Of course, you have a choice about whether or not to complete the survey/questionnaire, but if you do participate, you are free to skip any questions or discontinue at any time. You will not be penalized in any way for skipping or discontinuing the survey.
Your name and personal information (address, health information) will not be connected to your survey responses. The survey is secure and your answers will be stored in a secured database.
Please be aware, while we make every effort to safeguard your data once received from the online survey company, given the nature of online surveys, as with anything involving the Internet, we can never guarantee the confidentiality of the data while still on the survey company’s servers, or while en route to either them or us. It is also possible the raw data collected for research purposes will be used for marketing or reporting purposes by the survey/data gathering company after the research is concluded, depending on the company’s Terms of Service and Privacy policies.
If you have questions about the study, please feel free to ask; my contact information is given below.
Sincerely,
Aradhana Kaushal, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Radiation Medicine, University of Kentucky
PHONE: 859-257-7618
E-MAIL: aradhana.kaushal@uky.edu
If you have complaints, suggestions, or questions about your rights as a research volunteer, contact the staff in the University of Kentucky Office of Research Integrity at 859-257-9428 or toll-free at 1-866-400-9428.