The Research Coordinator Training and Support Unit

Clinical Research Scholars’ projects are likely to require research assistants and coordinators who can recruit subjects, obtain informed consent, collect clinical data, review medical records, perform interviews, administer questionnaires, and maintain high-quality records. To address these needs, the program will maintain a group of well-trained research coordinators who can be shared among projects. As needs grow with increasing numbers of Scholars and projects, the unit can expand with partial support from the Scholars’ research funds.

This unit will maintain excellence through continual training. The need for such training is prompted by the observation that many junior investigators often hire inexperienced personnel to research coordinator positions; that their training is typically brief, inconsistent, and often largely on-the-job; and that they often must function with a high level of autonomy in clinical settings that may be distant from a project’s central office. Experienced research coordinators acquire a wealth of practical knowledge that would be valuable to new coordinators.