In addition to education, an integral part of any academic medical center's mission is its research agenda. While recognizing the value of teaching, academics requires asking questions. It is vital to understand the mechanisms of health and illness, how to treat patients and their diseases more effectively, and how to provide healthcare to a community more effectively.
Research can be represented in several different forms. Investigations can be performed at the bench, where in vitro questions are asked and answered. The research milieu may be in an animal laboratory, where by following all moral and regulatory directions of humane animal care, applications of disease understanding and treatment can be carried out. Health services research can enable us to have a greater longitudinal understanding of healthcare, which gives us great insight into how successful we are in preventing and treating disease, and the eventual effect of our efforts on our patients.
The remaining area of research, which has recently received quite a bit of attention, particularly in the lay media, is the area of clinical research and trials. In a sense, clinical research brings together all of the other aspects of medical research, encompassing all of the goals previously listed. The end product of clinical research is the knowledge that allows us to understand disease processes and the prevention and treatment of these diseases. Clinical research is vital to achieving our ultimate goal of promoting health.
Because of the recognized importance of clinical research, the Association of American Medical Colleges organized a task force in clinical research. The task force emphasized the need for teaching hospitals and medical schools to reaffirm that clinical research is part of their fundamental mission. As Dr. Ralph Snyderman states in the task force's report, “…these institutions can be the enablers of the clinical research revolution and best practice healthcare.”
At Ochsner, we envision clinical research truly as a critical part of our community and academic mission. At any given time, we may have over 600 active clinical protocols. We also understand our obligation to ensure that all clinical research is undertaken by the most diligent efforts with a primary focus being the protection and welfare of the patients involved in the study. Our investigational review board that reviews and oversees all of the clinical protocols works tirelessly to ensure the optimal performance of these studies.
We feel that clinical research and trials are best conducted in an academic environment. Unfortunately, in recent decades industry sponsored clinical trials have declined from an 80% prevalence within academic medical centers to only 40%, the larger component now being carried out in commercial clinical research organizations. To be able to shift that trend, academic medical centers must address the needs of government and nongovernment sponsors, develop strategic plans to engage investigators and partner with the medical product industry, improve the administration of these grants so that they can be run efficiently and cost effectively, and remain flexible enough to change in order to continue to meet the community needs.
The investment in clinical research by academic medical centers is a wise investment. At Ochsner, we plan to continue and enlarge that investment. We feel that our institution is well suited to be successful in this arena for several reasons, including our access to a large and diverse sample of patients, experienced and interested investigators across multiple specialty areas, organizational support for the infrastructure necessary to carry out this research, complementary ongoing basic laboratory research, multiple-niche areas of clinical excellence, a long history of philanthropic partnership with the community, long-standing relationships with local insurance companies including our own health maintenance organization, and a large Graduate Medical Education program. Many of our clinical research activities spawn the articles published in this journal.
At Ochsner, we plan to follow the advice of the Association of American Medical Colleges task force by inculcating clinical research into our education and training programs and further developing and maintaining our research infrastructure to support investigators and protect our patients
- Ochsner Clinic and Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation
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