National Clinical Trial Network Designates St. Luke’s a High Performing Site

Bethlehem, PA – The National Clinical Trials Network has awarded St. Luke’s University Health Network $30,000 as part of its “High Performing Site Initiative.” The Trials Network is a National Cancer Institute program that provides funds and other support to cancer research organizations to conduct national clinical trials.

“We are very honored to have been selected to participate in the High Performing Site Initiative for the second year in a row,” says St. Luke’s Senior Network Director of Clinical Trials and Research Tracy Butryn, MS, CCRP, CHRC. “The grant recognizes our commitment to bringing leading edge treatments to our patients through our participation in clinical trials at a national level, as well as our high quality standards for clinical trial conduct.”

St. Luke’s participated in 16 NCI-sponsored clinical trials during this year’s award period from March 1, 2016 through Feb. 28, 2017. The HPSI compensates high-performing sites recognizing that the “per-case management funding” provided by the NCI is significantly lower than the actual costs incurred by the member institutions/sites to participate on a trial. The amount of the award was based on St. Luke’s overall Trials Network participation, evidence of integration activities and data quality within the program. This award will be used for infrastructure support to cover costs related to continued successful participation in national clinical trials at St. Luke’s.

The St. Luke’s Clinical Trials Office is the clinical and administrative shared resource for the conduct and management of sponsored clinical research across St. Luke’s. The Trials Office allows a centralized and streamlined approach to all sponsored-research conducted throughout the Network by integrating both the clinical operational team and the research administration team into one centralized office. This infrastructure ensures that both the clinical and administrative operations involved in clinical research are compliant with all regulations and policies, and that the workflow between sponsors, physicians, clinical support staff and other ancillary departments is streamlined and efficient.

St. Luke’s participates in more than 145 clinical trials, enrolling an average of 200+ patients in any given year. To learn more about clinical trials at St. Luke’s, visit www.research.slhn.org/Clinical-Trials.