Clinical Trials

Before new therapies can reach patients, they must be tested in clinical trials in representative populations to show that they work and are safe. Failure to enroll enough participants in trials can delay the arrival of new therapies in the clinic and inflate their eventual price tags. Failure to recruit diverse patients could diminish the relevance and generalizability of trial findings. For

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is participating in one of the first studies that tries to intervene earlier in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s an international clinical trial called the AHEAD study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the pharmaceutical company Eisai. The AHEAD study is both a test of a single promising drug and an effort to uncover

The Statesman Journal, based out of Salem, OR, published a story on efforts at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) to increase diversity in clinical studies. This story featured leaders from the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute and several of our collaborators. There are links throughout the article on how to get involved in clinical research at OHSU.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the nation’s medical schools have grown more diverse. More Black and Hispanic students are attending medical school than ever before. We celebrate this continued progress as it contributes to scientific workforce diversity and related outcomes like an increase in diversity of clinical trial participants. Join us as we recognize Black

Project management tools and principles are used successfully in business to manage goals and objectives to meet expectations of deliverables: product quality, timelines and cost. We in research know how complicated it is to get from “idea” to completed study publication. Our four modules (15 minutes a day) provide an introduction to the basics of clinical trial project management with skills

Clinical trials are essential for the development of new medical, surgical, or behavioral interventions, but clinical trials in the U.S. have long skewed toward recruiting mostly White men. A study published in the July 2022 issue of Lancet found that only 43% of trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov from 2000 to 2020 included data on race or ethnicity. For those that did, the majority of

When Beth Curles was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 1997, she told very few people. As an elementary school teacher in a small town in Georgia, she worried her community might harbor misconceptions about her diagnosis and treat her differently. For more than 15 years she quietly battled her disease, until her story brought her to Birmingham and to the care of the CCTS Clinical Research Unit

Site Tank, sponsored by Pfizer, recognizes a research site that has developed an innovative technology concept designed to enhance, empower, and improve clinical research operations. For the Site Tank competition, the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center presented its Clinical Research Coordinator Foundations Training Program. The program was created to address the persistent

“Georgia CTSA Clinical Research Centers (GCRCs) sites provide experienced, knowledgeable research staff. Investigators will be pleasantly pleased with having a complex trial run and supervised by the GCRCs because of the efficiency, attention to detail, and level of support you will receive to complete your study,” says Dr. Lisa Flowers. According to the findings of the groundbreaking Anal Cancer

COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS SAY BETTER TREATMENT GUIDANCE COULD BE USEFUL FOR PATIENTS Penn State faculty are joining clinical researchers from across the country to study treatment approaches for acute rhinosinusitis, also called “sinusitis.” The condition is an inflammation of the nose and sinus passages most often caused by a viral or bacterial infection that affects one in seven U.S. adults each

Mayo Clinic announced today that its Center for Clinical and Translational Science has successfully renewed funding for its research grant from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences for five more years. The funding award, totaling $48.2 million, is one of Mayo’s largest NIH grants, supporting research and education across the institution at that

The UCLA CTSI is a research partnership of the University of California Los Angeles, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center/Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation. The UCLA CTSI is expanding its efforts to translate discoveries that can improve the health of Los Angeles County’s diverse population. This is facilitated

Before new treatments can reach the clinic, they must be tested in clinical trials to see if they are safe and effective. Trials that do not enroll enough participants present roadblocks for advancing care to the clinic because they offer no scientific insight, waste money and time and inflate the costs of new treatments. Improving clinical trial efficiency – ensuring robust patient enrollment

A large randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial led by the National Institutes of Health shows that treating adults hospitalized with COVID-19 with infliximab or abatacept — drugs widely used to treat certain autoimmune diseases — did not significantly shorten time to recovery but did substantially improve clinical status and reduce deaths. Some COVID-19 patients experience an immune

The Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) hosted their 4th annual Symposium and Poster Display on Friday, May 13, 2022. The theme “Making an Impact, Shaping the Future” focused on strategies to address equity and diversity challenges experienced by institutions across the national Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) network. The hybrid event

When scientific advances burst into the news, such as a new medication to treat COVID-19 or a new concept like CRISPR for gene editing, people get a glimpse of how a scientific idea becomes a treatment or a tool. But what's the full story? Where did that idea come from? What happens in the research lab before clinical trials begin? How is scientific discovery transformed into a potential therapy

A new video sponsored by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Translational Research Institute (TRI) is being used to help raise awareness among researchers about the inclusion of older adults in research. The five-minute video also has tips for helping researchers recruit more adults over age 65. The video was produced in collaboration with the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus

A clinical trial at UC Davis Health and six other sites showed that a cellular therapy offers promise for patients with late-stage Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disorder causing muscle loss and physical impairments in young people.

UC Davis Health is partnering with Pfizer on two new clinical trials to test the COVID-19 booster vaccine in healthy adults. The UC Davis CTSC Clinical Research Center (CCRC) is providing professional patient care and research services to both clinical trials. It boasts a highly qualified staff who earned the Patient Safety Innovation Award in 2021 for supporting pioneering research on COVID-19

The University of Pennsylvania will be conducting a mixed methods study, funded by NCATS through a bioethics supplement to the University of Pennsylvania’s CTSA, to examine institutional approaches to prioritizing COVID-19 trials. The goal of this study is to understand relevant processes and criteria applied during the pandemic, as well as perspectives on potentially extending these approaches to

The Society for Clinical Trials (SCT) issued a call for submissions for two awards: - Thomas C. Chalmers Student Scholarship (http://www.sctweb.org/chalmers.cfm): Students currently enrolled in a graduate degree program (Masters, PhD, or DrPH) at an accredited college or university, or postdoctoral fellows (who completed their PhD/DrPH within the last two years) are encouraged to apply. Three