Dear Participant:  

 I am a graduate student under the direction of Dr. Lan Mu in the Department of Geography at The University of Georgia. I invite you to participate in a research study entitled From the World Wide Web to the Real World: Integrating various data in GIS to Better Understand Accessibility and Satisfaction of the Veteran's Health Administration. The overall purpose of this study is to focus on how social media, internet review data, and government data can be used with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to help patients to be better informed about VA health facilities and the overall performance of their Veteran’s Integrated Service Network (VISN) compared to other facilities in other areas and networks. My research will also focus on women veteran’s issues in terms of better understanding accessibility and satisfaction of the VA along with identifying health and wellness resources specific to the needs of this population. The results of the interviews and the surveys will be used to create a web mapping application that identifies health and wellness resources specific to the needs of women veterans.

Your participation will involve completing a survey about your user experience with a web mapping application that shows health and wellness resources for women veterans in San Antonio. This survey has seven questions and should only take about five to ten minutes. Your involvement in the survey is voluntary. As an incentive for participating, the first 50 people will receive a $5 Amazon gift card and you will receive the gift card by e-mail. You are not required to take this incentive, but it offered for your time to participate in this study. If you want the incentive, please provide your e-mail at the end of the survey. There are no risks associated with this research. If you decide to stop or withdraw from the study, the information/data collected from or about you up to the point of your withdrawal will not be retained.

Once the online questionnaire has been completed, the responses will be automatically added to a database that is maintained by the researcher and her advisor. Only the researchers will have access to the database. Potential participants must remember, however, that internet communications are insecure and there is a limit to the confidentiality that can be guaranteed due to the technology itself. However, the Google Forms online platform allows for the collection of anonymized responses to ensure that minimal identifying information is collected during the survey process. Once the materials are received by the researchers, standard confidentiality procedures will be employed. The results of the research study may be published, but your name or any identifying information will not be used. In fact, the published results will be presented in summary form only.  

The findings from this study provides information to improve a web mapping application designed to assist women veterans with finding information about health and educational resources. If you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to send an e-mail to me, Dorris Scott at das55839@uga.edu or Dr. Lan Mu at mulan@uga.edu. Questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant should be directed to the The Chairman at the University of Georgia Institutional Review Board, telephone (706) 542-3199, email address irb@uga.edu.
     
Thank you for your consideration!  Please keep this letter for your records.

 Dorris Scott