Research Survey

Dear Participant

You are invited to participate in a research study. The purpose of this study is to investigate primary pediatric healthcare professionals and audiologists accuracy of identification and treatment of otitis media in reference to the AAP and AAO guidelines. The survey has questions asking for demographic information such as discipline, age, and patient population served, what assessments tools you have available and those you use, as well as a series of patient scenarios.

We are inviting you to be in this study because you are a practicing professional in the area of the medical field in which this study is focusing on.

The survey has been disseminated through the following methods: 1.)We obtained your name, phone number and email address through a search on yellowpages.com; your office was called and an email address was obtained upon request from office staff. 2.) We found your contact information on publicly available state licensure lists. 3.) Your state association was contacted and agreed to disseminate the survey on our behalf. 4.) You found our survey through your professional organization’s facebook page. A reminder to take this survey will be sent once, two weeks after the survey has been released.

If you agree to participate, we would like you to:

Answer questions to obtain demographic information and questions related to your professional history (i.e how long you have been in practice). Following the demographic information, you will move onto the next phase of the survey. This phase involves a series of five scenarios. You will be asked questions related to five scenarios. We ask you to answer these questions to the best of your knowledge. You have the right to refuse to participate in the study. If you choose to withdraw after starting the study, you may do so by exiting out of the survey tab.

We will keep the information you provide anonymous, however federal regulatory agencies and the University of South Dakota Institutional Review Board (a committee that reviews and approves research studies) may inspect and copy records pertaining to this research.

All of your contact information initially obtained to reach you will be destroyed. Your responses will be anonymous to ensure that they cannot be linked to you.

There are no known risks from being in this study and you will not benefit personally. However, we hope that others may benefit in the future from what we learn as a result of this study.

All survey responses that we receive will be treated confidentially and stored on secure excel documents. All documents will be saved onto the primary investigator’s One Drive folder which is supported by the University of South Dakota IT. No identifiable information will be maintained. However, given that the surveys can be completed from any computer (e.g., personal, work, school), we are unable to guarantee the security of the computer on which you choose to enter your responses. As a participant in our study, we want you to be aware that certain "key logging" software programs exist that can be used to track or capture data that you enter and/or websites that you visit.

Your participation in this research study is completely voluntary. If you decide not to be in this study, or if you stop participating at any time, you will not be penalized or lose any benefits for which you are otherwise entitled.

To begin to survey, please see the link below:
https://www.psychdata.com/s.asp?SID=174276

If you have any questions, concerns or complaints now or later, you may contact us at the number below. If you have any questions about your rights as a human subject, complaints, concerns or wish to talk to someone who is independent of the research, contact the Office for Human Subjects Protections at 605-677-6184.

Thank you for your time.

Principle Investigator
Jessica J. Messersmith
Communication Sciences and Disorders
414 E. Clark Street Noteboom Hall Vermillion, SD 57069
Phone # 605-677-5474

Co-investigator
Melissa Castillo
Physician Assistant Studies
414 E. Clark Street Julian Hall Vermillion, SD 57069
605-658-5926

Student Investigator
Agelia Stout
Doctor of Audiology Student
Communication Sciences and Disorders
414 E. Clark Street Noteboom Hall Vermillion, SD 57069
Phone # 605-677-5474