VCU Medical Center Celebrates Clinical Research Coordinator Day June 27

Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center is celebrating and recognizing its clinical research coordinators during Clinical Research Coordinator Day on Wednesday, June 27. The highlight will be a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building, Rooms 104-105.

Clinical research coordinators (CRCs) play an integral role in translational research at VCU. These professionals are responsible for the organization, coordination and integrity of research projects involving human subjects.  There are approximately 130 CRCs at VCU and the VCU Health System.

Principal and co-investigators provide the overall direction in a clinical study, but CRCs have significant roles in clinical study activities, including protocol development, recruiting, screening and enrolling participants, obtaining participant informed consent, scheduling tests and procedures, collecting clinical research data and maintaining databases. The CRCs provide assistance with regulatory documentation and study start-up, case report forms and monitoring of participant visits. The coordinators offer a variety of services depending on the needs of each study.

A major theme of VCU’s strategic plan, Quest for Distinction, is research with the goal of becoming one of the preeminent urban public research universities in the country. In support of this enterprise, CRCs work in collaboration with university and health system investigators to advance science and accelerate research for the betterment of human health.