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The Conducting Research in Hospitals two-day intensive was held in New York City, July 15-16, 2019. Attendees from Hospitals, Academic Medical Centers and University Hospitals were able to participate in a deep dive about how research is organized and managed in hospital environments.  This was the third time this intensive has been offered. Each time we have held the workshop in large regional metropolitan locations (i.e., Atlanta, San Francisco, and New York City). The attendance for this event has been strong for each of these offerings and we hope to continue providing this relevant material in the future. One aspect of the regional offerings is that each time, we invite talented local research administrators to participate in the training program.

The first half-day involved key concepts and resources needed to support clinical (and translational) research in hospital environments, organizing those resources to fit into the clinical setting, roles, and responsibilities for both the Physician Researcher and Principal Investigator and institutional research administrators in the supporting clinical and translational research. This included reviews of workflows and processes required to secure approval for prospective, retrospective data collection, and biomaterials related research. These morning sessions were conducted by Phil Cola of Case Western Reserve University and Amy Sikalis of the University of Utah. The afternoon of the program was devoted to key aspects of prospective clinical research studies presented by Huron representatives, Nirmala Thevathasan and Mindy Muenich. 

The second day covered workforce development in the clinical and translational sciences by Phil Cola and key aspects of data and biomaterial studies presented by Huron representative Madeleine Williams and Kristina Knapp from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer. 

All of the concepts presented were enhanced through interactive case studies, the provision of tools where applicable and by extensive group discussion. One participant commented that the session was “excellent, and I learned more in half-day than at a general conference.” By the end of the two days, Phil commented that “he already had a few e-mails asking for additional advice on various topics that were covered, but where participants were returning to real-world complex situations that required proper management attention.”

The entire program was enhanced by the perspectives of both the presenters and attendees as well as by articles, presentation materials, tools, and references provided throughout the intensive in a comprehensive booklet for attendees. It is through this content and discussion collectively that we were able to describe how to develop successful research relationships between Universities, Hospitals, Industry, and other stakeholders that involve formal and informal affiliation agreements or other contractual agreements as required by the context.