College of Medicine opens Clinical Research Hub
Hub aims to provide seamless research support to clinical research faculty
July 26, 2023 – With more than $220 million in total research funding, UF College of Medicine faculty are pioneering discoveries and making lasting contributions to health care. For clinical researchers at the college, this means creating high-impact clinical trials that directly advance patient care, increase access and optimize outcomes.
To further support clinical research faculty, the UF College of Medicine Office of Research recently launched the Clinical Research Hub, which will provide enterprisewide leadership, create standards and policies and establish a shared infrastructure for clinical research in the college. The new hub aims to facilitate increased collaboration, simplify clinical research processes, develop pathways for researchers and advance overall research excellence.
“This is a significant step forward for our research community,” said Azra Bihorac, M.D., M.S., the senior associate dean for research affairs and co-director of the Intelligent Critical Care Center at the UF College of Medicine. “This realignment will promote new opportunities for improvements in all aspects of research contracting at UF.”
Under the leadership of Eileen Handberg, Ph.D., ARNP, a professor of medicine and the director of the Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Program, the hub will serve as a centralized location that connects faculty to the appropriate resources and provides assistance in navigating the rigorous and sometimes complex regulations required for performing clinical research.
Among the key priorities of the Clinical Research Hub will be streamlining processes and creating a more user-friendly experience so that researchers can devote less time to administrative tasks and more time to the research itself.
Eileen Handberg, Ph.D., ARNP
“Our mantra is going to be, ‘What can we do help?’ and our first focus is to make the process as simple as possible,” Handberg said. “We want to harness the energy of our faculty and provide a mechanism that gives them access to the latest technologies, drugs and clinical trials.”
In collaboration with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the Clinical Research Hub will assist investigators through a comprehensive ecosystem of support to ensure research success and high-quality trials.
“The CTSI and College of Medicine Clinical Research Hub will work coordinately toward our shared vision of accelerating the pace and the impact of UF research discoveries on improving human health,” said Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., associate dean for clinical and translational sciences, director of the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Phyllis Kottler Friedman Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery. “I look forward to working with Eileen Handberg and colleagues at the College of Medicine Clinical Research Hub in this endeavor as CTSI continues to support clinical and translational research activities across the UF academic health center colleges and university as a whole.”
The hub will absorb the personnel and operations formerly managed by the CTSI’s Office of Clinical Research, whose contracting team has been merged with the Division of Sponsored Programs. The Clinical Research Hub team will continue supporting OnCore, a comprehensive clinical trials management system, and all NIH-defined clinical trials and clinical research involving a billing calendar will be required to use OnCore and will receive support from the Clinical Research Hub.
“We think of the Clinical Research Hub as a front door, where we can do what is right for you as an individual researcher,” said Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., assistant dean for clinical research and an associate professor of neurosurgery. “The hub will break down barriers and facilitate cross-talk, so that we can help researchers get plugged into the appropriate teams or resources and really make UF the destination for clinical research it deserves to be.”
In the long term, the hub aims to further enhance the quality and impact of clinical research across the college and position UF as a national leader for placing trials. With a vast integrated clinical network and access to Florida’s varied and valuable demographics, the College of Medicine offers a compelling environment for future partners to collaborate on large-scale clinical trials.
“Our vision is not only to support our clinical research faculty, but to also increase our research exposure across the country and the world, catalyzing new partnerships with other universities or industries and accelerating the scientific discovery that has been a cornerstone of the college,” said Handberg.
