Clinical Trials

Biography

Biography: Lindsay Lowe

Abstract

Clinical trials actively engage participants in their healthcare, exposing them to innovative treatments that may improve their condition and help others. Effective programs select studies that positively impact their patients’ health. Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) is one of the nation’s largest healthcare systems. The CHS Department of Family Medicine Clinical Trials Division is home to the Mecklenburg Area Partnership for Primary Care Research, a practice-based research network. The research group is physically collocated within a family medicine residency training program, offering convenient access to providers and patients within a network of 6 ambulatory primary care practices with 30 faculty physicians, 69 resident physicians, and 5 advanced care practitioners, caring for 22,000 patients. A unified electronic medical record provides seamless communication amongst the large multidisciplinary research team and referring providers. Partnerships with the healthcare system’s advanced analytics and research finance departments support screening and fiscal efforts respectively. Over the past 8 years, the department has generated over 10 million dollars in revenue, brought on 14 clinical trials and enrolled nearly 600 participants. The team has maintained high rates of retention as a result of exceptional participant and teammate satisfaction. Most clinical studies have been phase 4 trials, funded by federal agencies and pharmaceutical companies, studying diabetes, hypertension, dementia, chest pain, retinopathy, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Having varied funding source has allowed for low turn-over of team members, which maintains continuity for the study participants, and has enabled growth within the department.