Every day, patients across Colorado use the UCHealth app to manage appointments, view test results and message their doctors. Now, they can also use the app to volunteer for cutting-edge clinical trials and help medical experts as they work to discover new treatments, better understand diseases, advance medical knowledge and speed up innovations in health care.

With just a few taps in the UCHealth app, patients now can explore research studies, express interest — and, if eligible — contribute to discoveries that can lead to more personalized treatments and better care for everyone.

“When a person participates in research, they are volunteering themselves and their time — a generous gift, to say the least,” said Kirsten Raehal, senior project manager with UCHealth Research Administration.

Raehal has a doctorate in philosophy in biomedical sciences.

Volunteers can step up to participate in a full array of opportunities.

“There are all types of research, from looking at new treatments and interventions for diseases that are observational and based on patient outcomes, to the advancement of scientific knowledge that’s required to create new therapies and devices,” Raehal said.

Connecting to research and studies via My Health Connection

Currently, UCHealth experts are conducting more than 2,300 studies. Many take place in the Denver area, close to UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, and the hub of the academic medical center. But volunteers can also participate in more than 200 studies taking place in other regions, including northern and southern Colorado, with a handful in Pueblo.

In some cases, a patient undergoing treatment may find out about study and trial opportunities from their doctor, Raehal said.

“This pre-existing treatment relationship helps researchers connect with people who qualify for their study,” she said. Still, it ignores the thousands of others who may qualify and be interested in advancing medicine, whether for personal reasons or for the overall good.

In some cases, a doctor may flag a patient’s account for a specific study, and the research team will send that patient a message through My Health Connection. The patient can then easily reply, “I’m interested” or “No thank you,” with a single click.

But with the newly added tool options within My Health Connection, patients now can be proactive in finding research studies and trials that interest them.

How to get started: Set your study ‘profile’ within your My Health Connection account

Within your My Health Connection account, you can set up a research profile that highlights your research interests, such as women’s health, sleep or nutrition. If study opportunities within those categories become available, the research team can then securely message you about potential studies. Patients can respond if they’re interested, and at that point — and only at that point — will the research team be able to review the patient’s protected health information relevant to the study in question.

Here is how to set up your research profile in My Health Connection:

• Log in to your My Health Connection account on the UCHealth app
• Click on Menu, and under the Tools section, select “research studies.”
• Here you’ll see a button: “Create Profile.”

The Research Preference Profile page will ask questions:

• The tool will ask: Would you consider participating in research studies as a healthy volunteer?
• The tool will prompt you to select areas of interest that are relevant to your medical history (this is different from being a “healthy volunteer”). There are 44 areas of interest a person can select. These include areas such as sleep, aging, allergies, diabetes, joint disease, mental health, cancer or women’s health.

A patient can update their research profile at any time.

The research team uses these profiles and compares patients’ interests with current studies. If there are matches, researchers will reach out to the volunteer via a message in My Health Connection.

There are about 1.8 million patients within the UCHealth system who have access to My Health Connection. Currently, about 37,500 people have completed their research profiles. Researchers will be thrilled if more people decide to participate in medical studies.

“The more people who complete these profiles, the more opportunities we have to connect people with studies. The goal is to have a positive impact on the future of medicine and health care,” Raehal said.

An easier way to find studies of interest within My Health Connection

In addition to creating a research profile, a new tool within My Health Connection, launched in November 2025, makes it easier to search for research opportunities.

Within the “Research studies” tool, you can click on “Search Available Studies.” UCHealth experts continue to add new studies to the online tool, so it’s worth checking back regularly. You can filter results by ZIP code, preferred hospital location, age, gender and research topics.

People can click on the study they’re interested in, get more information, and then click “I’m interested” if they want the research team to contact them. In some cases, if you indicated an interest in participating in a study, you may need to answer a few more questions to determine if you’re eligible. Whether you qualify for that particular study or not, a research team member will send you a message within approximately five business days to inform you about whether you do qualify and the next steps.

People interested in participating in clinical trials or other research studies can still search for relevant studies in UCHealth’s extensive online database, which doesn’t require a My Health Connection account. That list of research opportunities includes a brief description of the study type, along with the researcher or researchers’ contact information. For more details on the study, users must navigate to the National Library of Medicine’s clinicaltrials.gov website.

The research team’s goal is to have many of these studies migrate to the new study-finder tool within My Health Connection since it’s easier to explore, navigate and volunteer. But people who wish to search for research opportunities can still do so via the government’s clinical trial site. The benefit of the new tool is that patients remain within their My Health Connection account. That means that all of your health information remains private and any communications with doctors or researchers are confidential.

Study participation is always voluntary and involves detailed conversations and consent

Every person who volunteers for a research study will give written consent after the researchers have explained all the study details, risks and potential benefits. Someone will also explain any costs, how health information will be used and who will have access to it.

A participant can leave a research study at any time for any reason.

What types of research studies are out there, and who’s running them?

Raehal said that most studies at UCHealth are investigator-funded. This means that researchers design and conduct the studies. Most receive vital financial support from government grants or their hospital or academic institution.

“Their goal is to improve health care for our local population,” Raehal said. “Our investigator might see something in the clinical setting and say, ‘This is an unmet need, and how can we improve this?’”

Investigator-funded studies often have a more immediate impact on patients compared to industry-funded research, Raehal said.

Industry-funded studies, typically sponsored by pharmaceutical, biotech or medical device companies, are primarily designed to demonstrate a product’s safety, efficacy or market potential. Sometimes, these two types of studies intersect. For example, an investigator-funded study may evaluate an industry-developed product for a specific clinical use.

For example, a research project happening now at UCHealth focuses on “cannabinoids and traumatic brain injury.”  It aims to better understand the effects of hemp-derived CBD with and without small amounts of THC on patients who are coping with traumatic brain injuries. Researchers will evaluate how using various substances in differing doses affects a patient’s anxiety, depression, sleep issues and pain related to traumatic brain injuries.

Other studies are testing specific drugs for diabetes. Another focuses on links between rheumatoid arthritis and lung disease, and another looks at CBD for mild cognitive impairment.

To explore all the studies at UCHealth, log into My Health Connection and visit the Research Study tool.