FAQs
What is the Doctors’ e-Cohort Study?
The Doctors’ e-Cohort Study is a five year longitudinal study conducted under the direction of the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland. It aims to examine factors influencing the career decisions of doctors and medical students and patterns of recruitment and retention of doctors in the Australian health system. We are particularly interested in the health and well-being and career decisions of medical students as they progress through their studies and postgraduate training years. The findings will inform medical education and health-policy decision-making regarding shortages in the medical workforce.
Who funds the study?
The study is funded by the Australian Research Council in partnership with Queensland Health and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Who is eligible for this study?
All students enrolled in Year 1 of the MBBS program at The University of Queensland in 2010 are eligible to participate in this recruitment round.
How long does the survey take to complete?
The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete, however you do not need to finish the survey all in one go. You can come back to the website http://doctors.e-cohort.net whenever you have time. Use your username and password to log back on and continue.
What about future surveys?
Every year for the next five years, we will send you an email asking you to complete the next round of the online survey. There is only one survey to complete each year.
Who can I contact if I have questions or difficulties accessing my survey?
Send your questions to info@doctors.e-cohort.net. A member of the research team will get back to you as soon as possible.
For questions relating to the ethics of the study, contact the ethics officer on (07) 3365 3924 or m.tse@admin.uq.edu.au.
My password does not work.
Send your username and password to info@doctors.e-cohort.net so that we can check whether the details are correct in the system. We will get back to you as soon as we can.
I cannot log on to the website anymore.
Please check your security settings. Depending on your security policy, you might need to add our website http://doctors.e-cohort.net to your ‘Trusted Sites’ by following the instructions below:
- Launch your Internet Explorer Browser
- From the menu bar, go to ‘Tools/Internet Options’
- Select the Security tab, and click on the ‘Trusted Sites’ icon with the green check mark
- Click on the ‘Sites’ button
- Uncheck the ‘Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone’ option
- Type http://doctors.e-cohort.net in the ‘Add this website to the zone: ‘ box.
- Then click on ‘Add’ and ‘Close’ buttons
- Click ‘OK’ on the Internet Options window to confirm your change and exit out
I am concerned about the privacy of my details online. Can I be assured that my login details and personal information will not be used or accessed by any third parties?
The Doctors’ e-Cohort Study has been granted ethical clearance by The University of Queensland Behavioural and Social Sciences Ethics Review Committee. In accordance with the guidelines for confidentiality, consent, privacy, data handling and storage, none of your confidential information will be disclosed to anyone outside this study. Any personal information that may identify you is removed prior to analysis.
To alleviate the risks associated with electronic data storage, the Doctors’ e-Cohort Study protects its website with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) which is an encrypted protocol for transmitting private documents via the internet.
Further information can be found at https://doctors.e-cohort.net/Privacystatement.cfm
Will I get to see the results?
Yes, we hope to place some preliminary results on the website in the months following the closure of registration (date to be confirmed). We will also keep you up-to-date via our electronic newsletter.
Why did I get a birthday email?
Sending a birthday email to you is just a small way for us to recognise your participation in our study on your special day. It also provides us with the opportunity to check that your email is still current. Each time we do an electronic mail-out a number of messages bounce back to us. Often, participants have moved or changed internet providers and forgotten to tell us. As you can imagine, in a research project such as this we need to maintain contact with our participants over a five year period so sending birthday emails is a good way of ensuring we are still in electronic contact with each other.
Why do you want my address and phone number if the study is electronic?
Contact with our participants is predominantly via email. However, we request additional contact information – such as your residential address and phone number – just in case we are unable to contact you via electronic means. The input from every single participant is vital to our study so if you change email providers or move and forget to tell us, we are able to contact you and ensure that you are still part of the study.