Presented by Christopher Kratochvil, MD, Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research, Vice President for Research Nebraska Medicine during the March 2016 Clinical Research Coordinators Quarterly Update.

An institutional goal was set to increase clinical trial enrollment by 10% during fiscal year 2016. Not only is this desirable for our patients but increasing clini-cal trial enrollment is a requirement to achieve Comprehensive Cancer Center status, the top NCI designation for cancer centers.
A number of overlapping strategic goals were created to achieve this increase, including the creation of UNeHealth to streamline the commercial, clinical, con-tracting process, the use of Centralized IRBs, and improved recruitment through a dedicated marketing and outreach specialist.
These strategies, along with dedicated effort from the many staff involved in clinical trials have resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of patients consented to clinical trials. Our oncology studies as reported by the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center Research Office are up 73% for the first 2/3of the fiscal year. One Chart data shows that the number of patients consented to clinical research, including all non-registry studies and all oncology and non-oncology, is increased by 43%. The IRB annual review demonstrates an 88% increase in patients consented to clinical trials.
Congratulations to all who have worked tirelessly to improve the outlook and future direction of care available to our patients!