The strategic partnership between Atrium Health and Wake Forest University School of Medicine and our subsequent integration efforts have brought innumerable benefits to our collective Enterprise and positioned us to become a leading Academic Learning Health System. An important step in this journey is our ability to rapidly and consistently initiate and deploy clinical trials across our system to positively impact the lives of a growing number of patients. With this in mind, as we drive toward singleness across the system, it is critical that we harmonize the approach used to charge clinical trials for the provision of clinical services.
Today, the methodology used for charging trials is different across our regions. While the Wake Forest model in the Winston Region is consistent with the approach employed by several large Academic Medical Centers, the model in the Charlotte Region presents a number of potential advantages, especially as it relates to industry-funded clinical trials.
With this in mind, we are launching a project to create a single method for the charging of clinical trials for clinical services. This project will be led by Selvin Ohene, Associate Vice President of Research Operations for the Enterprise. Dr. Susan Evans, Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Surgery in the Greater Charlotte Region of Atrium Health will co-lead this project. The body overseeing this work will be the Enterprise Clinical Academic Oversight Council (ECAOC) that is jointly chaired by Drs. Julie Freischlag and Scott Rissmiller. This council has a broad membership from across the regions and is specifically charged with overseeing efforts like this, that sit at the intersection of research and clinical care.
Selvin Ohene and Dr. Evans will assemble a multi-disciplinary team with membership from each region to complete this work and will engage a broader group of stakeholders, including clinical leaders who have already been identified, prior to any consideration of implementation to ensure that the model fits our current and future needs. Please remember—the outcome of this work will impact all clinical trials, in all disciplines, in all regions. Thus, it is critical that this be an Enterprise-level project that is well vetted by a broad constituency of trialists and clinical operations leaders. Here is a listing of some members of the Winston, Charlotte, and Georgia markets that will be asked to contribute to this important project:
Some preliminary work is already underway. A project manager from the Cancer service line has been assigned to help support this important initiative with meeting logistics, charter development, milestone tracking, change management and status reporting. The project is expected to take approximately 90 days. A project status report will be distributed to key stakeholders on a bi-weekly basis. The first status report was shared with ECAOC during the February 16th meeting.
If you have any questions about this project or its implementation, please do not hesitate to contact Selvin Ohene (sohene@wakehealth.edu) or Dr. Susan Evans (susan.evans@atriumhealth.com).