About the Clinical Research Center

The Clinical Research Center’s professional staff provide support to investigators throughout the System who have innovative ideas for research in epidemiological, clinical, behavioral, health services and outcomes-oriented clinical research.

The Clinical Research Center enables Northern Light Health staff to pursue independent clinical research by supporting all their research administration needs, including:

  1. Training and education for investigators and staff

  2. Research project management (study design, data collection, statistical support, and database management)

  3. Pre- and post- award services (contract and budget negotiations, grant applications and post award services, Data Use Agreements (DUA) and Business Associate Agreements (BAA))

  4. Research compliance (Institutional Review Board (IRB) submissions, research Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Good Clinical Practice guidelines (GCP)

  5. Research mining

  6. Data safety and quality and control.

Our staff includes: research project managers, certified clinical research coordinators, biostatisticians, research interns, manager of sponsored programs, and an office coordinator who supports the financial tracking system for all research activities.

Every year the Clinical Research Center, in collaboration with the Northern Light Health Research Advisory Council, offers clinical research fellowships to qualified investigators, and seed grants to qualified research projects, allowing the staff protected time to work on the development and implementation of research projects.

The Clinical Research Center also facilitates collaboration opportunities with local and national partners, by being the liaison for all required activities within the partnership, including the completion of allied scientist agreements, DUAs, BAAs, and institutional required research training. All allied scientists have the opportunity to work within our facilities, with clinicians and patients, and have access to the Northern Light Health IRB, and the Northern Light Health Research Registry, on their Northern Light Health IRB approved protocols.

The Clinical Research Center's mission is to promote excellence and quality in clinical research methods, to encourage best practices in clinical study implementation, and to empower investigators to conduct high quality independent research.

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To be a state-of-the-art, dynamic, and integrated clinical research center that provides leadership, infrastructure, and resources to support patient-oriented research studies. 

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The objective of the Clinical Research Center is to support, coordinate, and direct sponsored and non-sponsored activities in epidemiological, clinical, behavioral, and outcomes oriented clinical research. The Center enables EMMC providers to pursue independent research by offering, advising, and administering competitive research grants. It also provides services related to IRB submissions, research SOPs, Good Clinical Practice Guidelines (GCP), contract negotiation, budget preparation, administration of grants, developing and maintaining databases, and analyzing research data.

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In the end, the Clinical Research Center seeks to contribute knowledge toward excellent patient care and to discover better healthcare practices.

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