National Clinical Trials Day at UVA
On Tuesday, May 20th the UVA SOM Clinical Trials Unit sponsored a “National Clinical Trials Day” event. First launched in 2005 by the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network to commemorate the pioneering work of James Lind and the first randomized clinical trial conducted in 1747 to develop a treatment for scurvy, National Clinical Trials Day serves as a platform to celebrate the contributions of clinical research professionals, honor the participants who volunteer for research, and promote the importance of clinical trials in advancing medical knowledge.
The CTU was delighted to provide clinical research professionals at UVA with cupcakes and cookies as a small token of appreciation for the hard work that they do all year. Tables were set up at both Pinn Hall and Fontaine Research Park and in addition to the sweet treats CTU staff were on site to raffle gift cards and answer questions about clinical research at UVA and CTU services.
Below is a National Clinical Trials Day message from Dr. Linda Duska, MD, Associate Dean for Clinical Research:
“Happy National Clinical Trials Day!
Clinical research is the means by which we improve the state of human health. It allows us to develop novel treatments for cancer, effective vaccines for infectious diseases, better devices for joint replacements, and much, much more. For those of us who are fortunate enough to participate in clinical research, these studies give us the opportunity to offer state of the art care to our patients and to give our patients the best potential outcomes.
Today, while we celebrate our ability to offer clinical trials to our patients, we also must acknowledge that none of this effort would be possible without our incredibly dedicated and hardworking clinical research teams. I am grateful every day to the research infrastructure that keeps our clinical research programs vital and safe for all participants. The people that make up this infrastructure are critical to the process, and without them we could not be successful.
There are so many people to thank and appreciate today and all days – the clinical research coordinators who do so much work directly with the research participants but also so much work behind the scenes; the managers who keep everything running smoothly; the data managers (because without data, the research is meaningless!); the nurses; the regulatory teams; the finance teams; the folks who provide training and support for our ever more complex research systems and processes; and all of you who keep our clinical research infrastructure running and our research patients safe. If you are receiving this message, these words are directed at you. Please know that we see you and appreciate you every day, and we know that without you none of this would be possible.
Our success in clinical research at UVA makes me proud every single day, I am grateful to all of you who work to make this possible.
Thank you all.”
Linda Duska, MD
Associate Dean for Clinical Research