Duke Clinical Research Institute launches partnership to study clinical trials

The University announced Tuesday a new partnership between the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Vanderbilt University's Medical Center. 

The two institutes recently received a seven-year, $26.5 million federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to promote more efficient clinical trials of new drugs. Dr. Danny Benjamin, faculty associate director of the DCRI, and Dr. Gordon Bernard, director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, will serve as the grant’s principal investigators.

“The academic research organization model at the DCRI and Vanderbilt’s informatics and central institutional review board model are poised to immediately contribute to the NIH’s vision of high-functioning networks for clinical research," Benjamin said in the release. 

The Duke-Vanderbilt Trial Innovation Center will consist of multiple modules—a "study design core," a "study conduct core" and a "study start-up core." The "design core" will work with investigators to examine protocols and budgets for studies while the "conduct core" will provide support for investigators.

The "start-up core" will work with the Institutional Review Board to get trials started as soon as possible. 

“We are excited about the opportunity to be on the ground floor of building a new infrastructure for the efficient conduct of high-quality clinical research that has a major impact on human health,” Bernard said in the release.