April 23, 2021: COVID Clinical Trials: The Intermountain Healthcare Experience (Samuel M. Brown, MD, MS)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Samuel M. Brown, MD, MS
Associate Professor and Director of Pulmonary/Critical Care Research
Intermountain Healthcare
Associate Professor, University of Utah

Topic

COVID Clinical Trials: The Intermountain Healthcare Experience

Keywords

COVID-19; Public health; Integrated health system; COVID-19 treatment trials

Key Points

  • Intermountain Healthcare is a nonprofit, community-based healthcare system that maintains an academic referral center and several hospitals in Utah.
  • During the pandemic, the health system was able to integrate COVID-19 research with urgent clinical, operational, and public health needs. The health system currently supports 15 randomized clinical trials in COVID-19 research, investigating immunologic and virologic therapies.
  • Collaboration and communication across divisions were essential elements to the successes achieved.
  • Among the challenges of conducting the COVID-19 trials, there remains a wish for a comprehensive risk management solution and regulatory reform.

Discussion Themes

Could we establish a robust program that provides better training and pay for study coordinators? These staff have direct contact with participants for recruitment and retention and can make or break a trial.

What aspects of institutional culture contributed to the success of conducting these trials?

What is needed is a clinical research ecosystem that appropriately balances regulatory oversight with the agility to answer urgent health questions.

Read more about Intermountain Healthcare’s experiences with COVID-19 clinical trials in these recent publications:

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1