The objective of the Clinical Research Center (CRC) at Meharry Medical Colleqe is to support clinical research to improve the health of African-Americans and other populations with health disparities and to increase the nation's pool of minodty physicians and dentists carrying out clinical research.
The specific aims are: 1) To strengthen the administrative infrastructure CRC and diversify the clinicat research activities in the CRC by developing initiatives in oral health, community health, clinical pharmacology, and a collaborative ctinical research network, 2) To increase the type and quality of direct research support available to both junior and expedenced clinical research faculty, and 3) To increase the number of medical and dental faculty conducting clinical research using the CRC.
Aim #1 : Strengthening and expanding the CRC will be achieved by developing a Core Manaaement Team to improve resource utilization, financial management, assist investigators with clinical tdals, and prepare timely management reports. An Associate Director of Oral Health Disparity Research will provide leadership for increasing dental faculty clinical research. A Research Subiect Advocate will ensure that the safety of research subjects is accorded the highest priority. To diversify clinical research, the CRC will develop collaborative research with community health centers and other RCRll clinical research centers and a clinical Dharmacol_v oroclram.
Aim #2 : increasing the type and quality of direct research support will be accomplished by hidng a biostatisticiantepidemioto_ist with clinical tdal expedence and a data analyst to meet increasing requests for assistance with clinical study design, study methodology, data management, and manuscript preparation. Two research assistants, a bilingual research nurse and a community field research nurse will be added to improve patient recruitment and community outreach, and to accommodate the increasing number of researchers and types of clinical research actiVrLies, in year two, a bioinformatics manaQer wig be hired to develop and integrate computational tools to facilitate multidisciplinary clinical research. In year 3, a clinical pharmacologist will be hired to develop and implement clinical Dharmacol_y studies within the CRC.
Aim #3 : Strategies for increasing the number of Meharry clinical researchers in medicine and dentistry include: a) short-term """"""""seed"""""""" funding to stimulate investigator-initiated research projects, b) long-term funding for faculty-developed clinical research proiects with the potential for extramurally funding, and other faculty development initiatives including: monthly CRC Clinical Science Seminars, interdisciplinary Clinical Research Seminars, an Annual Symposium on Health Disparities Research, Grantsmanship Workshops, and courses on Clinical Research for faculty, residents, and students. With these enhancements, the CRC will take on a leadership role in the expansion of clinical research at the college and become a national source of expertise on clinical research targeting health disparities.
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