The Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), in collaboration with Anne Arundel Health System (AAHS) and the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC), has established a new network of academic and community-based clinical researchers, the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network (JHCRN). The JHCRN, which will provide new opportunities for research collaborations, is designed to accelerate the transfer of new diagnostic, treatment, and disease-prevention advances from the research arena to patient care.
The JHCRN creates a bridge for research between Hopkins and community-based medical centers by linking physician-scientists and staff from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions with community-based medical centers in the region. The network, which will ultimately have additional member institutions, will serve several purposes, the most important of which is to make clinical trials available to patients who may not ordinarily have access to them.
"This strategy started four years ago when the newly ICTR wanted to expand its capacity for doing research and to take advantage of the potential collaboration of physicians both at GBMC and Anne Arundel who wanted to collaborate with us to do joint trials, but we didn't have a mechanism for at that time," says Dr. Charles Balch, Deputy Director for Clinical Trials and Outcomes Research, JH Institute for Clinical and Translational Research Director, Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network.
"What's unique about it is that it's intended to facilitate collaborations of physicians in any specialty, although we've started initially in cancer because that's the most mature area of clinical trials in many facilities. We're moving quickly into other areas such as diabetes, heart disease, vascular disease and so forth," he continues.
The JHCRN directly addresses the many complexities of conducting multisite and multi-institutional trials by providing investigators with a larger patient pool and a seamless platform that uses common research protocols. The goal of the network is to speed the approval of new trials while ensuring careful oversight of patient safety. Rapid start-up and timely completion of research studies, aided by widespread access to the clinical trials, will make promising therapies available for patient use more quickly.
The network was established through an initial agreement with charter affiliate AAHS in early 2009. This early collaboration was instrumental in clearing many of the organizational and legal barriers to shared research, a process that continues with the inclusion of newer affiliate GBMC. The initial focus of the JHCRN will be on expanding cancer-related clinical trials (including medical, surgical, and radiation therapy aspects of cancer treatment) and diabetes and surgical studies. Future collaborations will include a wide range of research areas, including intensive care; cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric, brain, and spine diseases; and radiology and nuclear medicine studies.
The JHCRN is a program of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), which is a part of a national consortium aimed at transforming how clinical and translational research is conducted at academic health centers around the country.
Network researchers from participating hospitals will use a centralized data system to coordinate information from diverse information technology and electronic medical records sources. Clinical research methodologies, data management, research reporting documentation, patient consent forms, and quality- and safety-control criteria will be standardized. With this uniformity, network hospitals can better develop and coordinate their own clinical research activities or joint clinical trials with other JHCRN institutions.
Source: Dr. Charles Balch, Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research
Writer: Walaika Haskins