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Womens Enhanced Recruitment Program (WERP)


WERP is a VA Cooperative Studies Program process improvement activity focused on boosting the inclusion of women Veterans in VA clinical trials. WERP began in 2016 as a collaboration between the VA Cooperative Studies Program (CSP) and VA Women’s Health Research Network (WHRN) to enhance women Veteran recruitment methods. It started with a focus on a single large multisite trial, CSP #591--Comparative Effectiveness Research in Veterans with PTSD (CERV-PTSD). WERP’s efforts contributed to CSP #591’s final sample of 916 participants, of whom 20% were women. This collaboration also generated lessons on effective and acceptable strategies to enhance recruitment of women Veterans in trials. WERP has since translated and expanded on these lessons to improve inclusion of women Veterans across the broad portfolio of CSP studies through the provision of resources such as the WERP Toolkit (accessible behind the VA firewall), through consultations with CSP investigators and study teams, and through other activities to support study teams as they try to include more women Veterans in their trials.

Project Lead(s): Karen M. Goldstein MD, MSPH; Karleen Giannitrapani PhD, MPH, MA (Palo Alto VAHCS)

Project team: Susan Alton Dailey MSW/MPH; Alyssa Pomernacki MPH; Diane Carney MA; Susan Frayne, MD, MPH

Project Sites: Durham VA Health Care System; VA Palo Alto Health Care System

Contact the National WERP Team: WERP@va.gov

Core WERP Activities

The WERP Toolkit was first published in June 2023 (last update spring of 2025). The Toolkit provides strategies and resources to improve recruitment and representation of Women Veterans in VA clinical research. The toolkit is only available behind the VA firewall. Find the Toolkit here.

The WERP toolkit covers:

  • Information on how to incorporate trauma-informed principles into study activities.
  • Staff training resources to support the participation of women Veterans in clinical trials
  • Tailored recruitment efforts to incorporate into the distinct settings where women receive care within VA.
  • Guidance on planning and conducting studies that promote participation of women Veterans.

Consultations: WERP provides consultations to CSP studies in planning to support study teams in designing studies that are optimized for recruiting women Veterans.

Academic detailing: WERP provides support to studies that are focused on conditions that have particular relevance to women Veterans, assisting them with targeted activities and study staff education to support recruitment.


Organizational Partners


Publications

  • Goldstein KM, Yano EM, Schnurr PP, Bastian LA, Alton Dailey S, Pomernacki A, Carney D, Gierisch JM, Hamilton AB, Nevedal A, Vogt D, Frayne SM. Enhancing representation of special populations: An approach to the inclusion of women veterans in VA clinical trials. Contemporary Clinical Trials. 2025 Feb;149:107812. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2025.107812. Epub 2025 Jan 11. PMID: 39805.
  • Goldstein KM, Kung LCY, Dailey SA, Kroll-Desrosiers A, Burke C, Shepherd-Banigan M, Lumsden R, Sims C, Schexnayder J, Patel D, Cantrell S, Sheahan KL, Gierisch JM. Strategies for enhancing the representation of women in clinical trials: an evidence map. Systematic Reviews. 2024 Jan 2;13(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s13643-023-02408-w.
  • Pomernacki A, Alton Dailey S, Nevedal A, Lanford T, Carney D, Frayne SM, Giannitrapani KF, Goldstein KM. Increasing women Veterans’ participation in clinical trials: An evaluation of a Hub and Spokes model in the Veterans Health Administration. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. Manuscript under review.
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