Collaboration in Action: Measuring and Improving Contracting Performance in the University of California Contracting Network.

In 2013, the University of California, Biomedical Research, Acceleration, Integration, and Development (UC BRAID) convened a regional network of contracting directors from the five University of California (UC) health campuses to: (i) increase collaboration, (ii) operationalize and measure common metrics as a basis for performance improvement efforts, and (iii) identify and implement best practices to maintain a competitive edge in the field of biomedical research. This article summarizes an 18-month examination of performance metrics across the five campuses, including methods for data collection and harmonization agreed upon by the UC contracting offices. Some of the most striking, and previously unmeasured, results demonstrate that master agreements are a highly effective and successful strategy for significantly shortening the average time to completion of contract terms. Interestingly, clinical research organizations (CROs) significantly increase the time required to negotiate a contract. Results also point to the intra- and inter-organizational dependencies affecting time to contract execution. Systematic and transparent data collection among UC stakeholders is necessary to continue improvements to the system. However, data collection is only one component of the larger need to develop shared technology both within and between institutions. This study demonstrates that collaboration and sharing of contract terms is an effective way to reduce study activation time, but the greatest improvements will be driven by the sharing of data and technology tools.

Assessing Researcher Needs for a Virtual Biobank.

INTRODUCTION: Biosamples and associated clinical data accelerate translational and clinical research discoveries. A lack of high quality biosamples both stalls projects and limits research advances. In this study, we targeted a wide audience of University of California (UC) biobanking stakeholders who were either involved with the collection or the utilization of biosamples to assess the scope of their biobanking activities and their interest in virtual biobanking or cooperating in the formation of the UC-wide biorepository. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Each institutional review board from the five UC medical campuses' provided a dataset of potential researchers involved with biobanking. Once identified, a brief six item web-based questionnaire was administered electronically to these researchers. RESULTS: Most survey participants (80%) responded "yes" (n = 348) that they were actively collecting biosamples for research, and 68% of participants indicated they would either definitely (30%, n = 131) or maybe (38%, n = 166) request biosample materials now or within the next year. An equal proportion of participants responded yes (42% or n = 184) and maybe (42% or n = 182) when asked if they would voluntarily contribute specimens to a UC-wide virtual biobank. DISCUSSION: The results presented above show high levels of support among UC biobanking stakeholders for both requesting material from and contributing material to a UC-wide virtual biobank. In addition, a considerable number of individual researchers on our five UC medical campuses are conducting biospecimen research (i.e., well over n = 435 respondents).