What is the Clinical Research Network (CRN) Project?
The goal of the Clinical Research Networks project, part of the NIH Roadmap for Biomedical Research, is to promote and expand existing clinical research informatics networks. By enhancing the efficiency of these clinical research networks through informatics and other technologies, researchers will be better able to broaden the scope of their research and more rapidly conduct high-quality clinical studies that address multiple research questions.
The project supports feasibility studies that are focused on clinical research networks located at academic health centers located around the country that work jointly on clinical trials and include community-based health care providers. The studies aim to enhance clinical research infrastructure through increasing the scope of research activities, increasing participation, and facilitating communication and cooperation among networks. The studies also explore new ways to organize how clinical research information is recorded, new standards for clinical research protocols, modern information technology, and new strategies to strengthen the clinical research workforce.
The project team has developed an inventory of existing clinical research networks that explores current informatics and training infrastructures in order to identify characteristics that promote or inhibit successful network interactivity, productivity and expansion, or broadening of research scope. The intent is to identify and widely disseminate “best practices,” further enhancing the efficiency of clinical research networks.
The results of the feasibility studies and the inventory will assist in the development of a National Electronics Clinical Trials and Research (NECTAR) network. NECTAR will provide the informatics infrastructure that will serve as the backbone for interconnected and inter-operable research networks.
For more information on the Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise Clinical Research Networks initiative, contact Jody Sachs, D.P.M., National Center for Research Resources, (301) 435-0802, sachsjg@mail.nih.gov.