June 2, 2006

Clinical Research Day: Improving patient care

Strategies for surmounting the second translational block — barriers that keep
information gained in clinical trials from being incorporated into regular patient care — were explored at the fourth annual Clinical Research Day May 25. In his welcoming statement, Peter L. Slavin, MD, president of the MGH, announced a new grant award that will provide two MGH clinicians — physicians, nurses or allied health professionals — significant support to help bring new knowledge into improved clinical practices. Information on these Clinical Innovation Awards can be found at this link (Click here).

Keynote speaker Robert Califf, MD, vice chancellor for Clinical Research at Duke University Medical Center, stressed that changing how care is delivered needs more than new technologies. "The art of medicine is in the interactions of human beings," he said. Addressing how quality must be incorporated into changing practices, he noted that getting the right people and systems into place is critical to the utilization of new knowledge.

Califf's talk was followed by presentations from the four reseach teams that received this year's hospitalwide awards, which included a new interdepartmental team award. Another five of the 221 posters presented under the Bulfinch Tent were named hospitalwide posters of distinction, and 21 posters received departmental awards.

List of Award Winners

"We're getting to see a snapshot of the work being done at MGH, and it's quite impressive," said Eric Rosenberg, MD, director of the Clinical Research Program Education Unit.

The day concluded with a panel discussion in which several MGH clinical researchers — along with Califf and James J. Mongan, MD, president and CEO of Partners — examined ways that clinicians can build careers that focus on improving medical practices. "This has been a remarkable celebration of the enormous scope of clinical research activity within the MGH," says William F. Crowley, Jr., MD, founder and director of the Clinical Research Program. "Peter Slavin's announcement of the novel Clinical Innovation Awards signals yet again the administration's ongoing commitment to clinical investigation."