Most professional bodies

and private companies linked to genetics now have LinkedIn groups, e.g. American Society Human Genetics, Illumina, National Society of Genetic Counselors.     Social media and traditional media are often directly linked. For example, television news outlets usually have an online presence as well as a Twitter feed. Each individual online news story can also typically be linked directly to personal social media feeds. Thus, it is possible to affect the momentum of social media by linking into traditional media sources such as TV and radio; in a cyclical motion, each feeds the other. The following Methods section summarises the processes that were followed for recruitment, and the Results section provides details about the sample obtained. Material and methods Overview of methods The overall study adopted find more a mixed methods approach, utilising both quantitative and qualitative techniques. For the quantitative

arm, non-parametric data were gathered via 32 closed questions and explored using descriptive statistics. A web-link to the online survey was made available via the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK; this could also be accessed through a web-page that described buy EX 527 the background to the study (www.​genomethics.​org). Participants The study aim was to recruit participants who were genomic researchers, genetic health professionals (e.g. clinical geneticists, genetic counsellors, etc.), non-genetic health

professionals (e.g. surgeons, GPs, nurses, etc.) and members of the public. Survey design An extensive discussion on the survey design process can be found in a separate publication (Middleton et al. 2014). Here details are provided about the background work which was done to iteratively create a robust questionnaire; this involved a Focus Group, five pilot studies, readability tests, test-retest reliability measures and numerous stages of face validity testing. The resultant survey includes 32-closed questions gathering mainly categorical, quantitative data. Recruitment strategy A three-phase interlinked recruitment strategy was utilised (Fig. 1). Fig. 1 Three-phase interlinked recruitment strategy 1 Traditional media Together with the media department at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, a press release Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase was written that advertised the study and invited participation. Following on from this, Channel 4 news and BBC local news created and delivered news stories on the research for the TV, and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, BBC Radio 4 ‘Material World’ and the BBC World Service aired news stories for the radio. In each media article an interview with AM was conducted, and a link to the survey website was advertised. Each of these media also had an equivalent online news forum where a link to the survey was placed in an article summarising the project.   2.