The Clinical Core of the Duke-UNC Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center (CSCC) comprises facilities, personnel, scientific resources, and sickle cell disease (SCD) patient populations at the medical centers of both Duke and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The CSCC currently has 1,388 SCD patients evenly split between pediatric and adult populations, with 812 clients having SS homozygous SCD. In addition, through the NC Consortium for Sickle Cell Disease, we are able to draw upon even more of the 3,000 SCD patients in NC for our research activities. The Clinical Core has four primary missions all of which require comprehensive and caring patient interaction: (1) Patient Care - Faculty and staff directly provide integrated, state-of-the-art, and comprehensive health care services to Center patients and their families in coordination with the Patient Service Core. Further, the Core ensures that each patient has access to new research protocols as they become available. (2) Support and Performance of Inter-center Clinical Trials. The Duke-UNC Comprehensive Clinical Center is committed to participationin the multi-center clinical trials conducted by the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center network and our Clinical Core will provide the infrastructurefor such collaborative studies. The Center has extensive experience in these types of trials and will provide data coordinators to coordinate data entry and analysis with the NHLBI Statistics and Data Management Staff. (3) Support and Performance of Other Clinical Research - The Core will support and conduct the clinical research activities of each of the individual investigators of the Duke-UNC Sickle Ceil Center. Core personnel will help identify and recruit appropriate study subjects, obtain informed consent, reliable specimen collection, accurate data capture, and responsible, non-intrusive administrative services (4) Support for Basic and Translational Research: Core personnel will help identify appropriate study subjects, obtain informed consent, and obtain blood and biologic samples for use in basic research studies, as well as to provide corollary clinical data where required and approved by the IRB. The Clinical Core includes physicians, the Center's Scholar, physician extenders, nurses, social workers, and data coordinators at both constituent institutions, and each site provides both pediatric and adult services. Because they maintain a close relationship with each study subject and are fully knowledgeable about the research being conducted, the Core staff is ideally positioned to ensure the effective implementation of all Center-based and multi-center research projects. Leadership includes Dr. Russell Ware as PI of the Core, and Dr. Eugene P. Orringer as UNC Site Director who ensure quality of patient care. They and the clinician-scientistsin the Core meet regularly as the Intemal Advisory Committee (see Administrative Core) with the Center Director. The IAC acts as a forum to encourage intra-Center collaboration as well as address issues with individual research protocols so they may be addressed in a timely manner.
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