Highly skilled physician investigators are urgently needed for pediatric trial teams that can take advantage of new technologies and respond to the increasing demands of high quality pediatric clinical trials. At the same time, rural and underserved communities need access to and to benefit from these clinical trials. Locally, regionally, and nationally, UNM Pediatric Clinical Triasl Center (PCTC) will support and advance pediatric clinical trials. Our impact is significant for many reasons: 1) UNM PCTC will be a portal of entry to our diverse patient populations including underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as geographically isolated and under-resourced rural communities; Our community-engaged approach strengthens recruitment of these diverse populations into research studies and will improve health among pediatric populations; 2) UNM PCTC is a needed asset locally and regionally. UNM PCTC has a dedicated and skilled research team including trained investigators to conduct multisite pediatric clinical trials; 3) UNM PCTC will bring unique capabilities to the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (ISPCTN), including collaboration with the Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC); 4) We have unique and established strengths in clinical study infrastructure and Translational Workforce Development (TWD) as part of UNM CTSC that will provide valuable assets to the entire ISPCTN; 5) Finally, UNM PCTC will have experienced principal investigators (PIs) participating in multisite pediatric clinical trials and recruitment and retention from communities and rural areas statewide. They will be a great asset to the ECHO ISPCTN. UNM PCTC will offer an experienced team of researchers to work with the IDeA states Data Coordinating and Operations Center (DCOC) of ECHO ISPCTN. The team will improve access to relevant populations and accelerate overall study accrual and retention of participants while generating high-quality data that meet regulatory standards. UNM PCTC and collaborators will offer expertise needed to identify research topics of high priority, including rural and underserved communities. We will exert a positive impact on access and on the quality of multisite pediatric studies in a measureable way. We will accomplish this by increasing the speed and efficiency of multisite pediatric trials and by using innovative methods to improve engagement, enrollment, and retention of diverse populations from New Mexico. We will sustain Network productivity by training independent pediatric clinical-trial investigators as we advance scientific knowledge in child health.
UNM Pediatric Clinical Trials Center will conduct multisite pediatric clinical trials research and assure that state-of-the-art clinical trials will be accessible to children living in rural or underserved communities in New Mexico. The Center will also work locally and nationally to ensure capacity building of research personnel to carry out trials with rigor. Collectively, these efforts will result in advancing knowledge in child health and better health outcomes in children.
| Snowden, Jessica; Darden, Paul; Palumbo, Paul et al. (2018) The institutional development award states pediatric clinical trials network: building research capacity among the rural and medically underserved. Curr Opin Pediatr 30:297-302 |
