Email from  administrator  to research staff

January 15, 10:46 a.m.

Yesterday was the deadline for our receipt of completed surveys from doctors who were invited to participate in the Medical Practice Priorities Survey. Did we get enough returns from this original group of invitees to get reliable statistics? Do we need to invite additional participants?

Email from  project coordinator  in response to the administrator’s January 15, 10:46 a.m. message

January 15, 11:12 a.m.

Altogether we got exactly 350 actual survey completions. We need at least 700 and were hoping for even more, so we plan to invite a second group to participate. Both the results from this first group and other research indicates that with this type of survey and this type of participants there is about a 40 percent probability that any given invitee will submit the completed survey in the time we’ll allow. (Obviously that doesn’t mean that if we invited 1,000 we’d necessarily get at least 400, so we need to think in terms of the risks of getting too few returns or exceeding the budget.) All of the participants who submitted their surveys by the deadline will get the $50 payment we promised. What is our total budget for compensation to participants?

Email from  administrator  to project coordinator in response to the project coordinator’s January 15, 11:12 a.m. message

January 15, 1:54 p.m.

The budget we allocated for compensation to those who complete and submit the Medical Practice Priorities Survey is $45,000. We will honor our commitment to pay $50 to each participant—in the second group as well as the first—who completes the survey and submits it by the deadline we specify when we invite them to participate. However, we will need to try not to exceed the total amount that is budgeted for this purpose.