Conducting clinical research is critical to mission of academic health centers and to the progress of medical science. Referral of eligible patients for clinical trials represents the major bottleneck to the successful conduct of such studies with only a small fraction of potentially eligible subjects being referred for possible inclusion in the trials. Physician are essential to the successful recruitment of subjects for many clinical trials, but the pace of current clinical practice makes the identification and referral of eligible patients difficult. New methods of identifying and facilitating physician referral of eligible patients for ongoing clinical trials are sorely needed. In the first phase of our study, we propose to deploy an EHR-based clinical trial alert (CTA) system into the process of clinical care with the aim of enhancing referral of patients to an ongoing clinical trial. We will assess: (1) Improvements in physician identification of potentially eligible patients for an ongoing clinical trial in the course of regular clinical practice; (2) Referral and enrollment rates to a clinical trial. Following this, we will apply quantitative and qualitative methods to identify the perceived positive and negative aspects of the approach, identify success factors, and discover areas for improvement. Based on our findings, we will then enhance our CTA approach and deploy it more widely while also applying more rigorous methods for evaluating its effectiveness througout our institution and others. In addition, we will apply qualitative and quantitative methods to elucidate success factors for the use of this technology.
The second aim of this application is to provide support for the candidate's career development. By engaging in the research outlined above, advanced training and coursework beyond the candidate's Masters level education, participating in national and regional Informatics conferences, and working closely with local and national mentors, the candidate will emerge well prepared for an independent research career.
