North American Cancer Center Clinical Research Capacity and Benchmarking in the Postpandemic Era.

PURPOSE: Cancer center clinical trial offices (CCTOs) support trial development, activation, conduct, regulatory adherence, data integrity, and compliance. In 2018, the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) Steering Committee conducted and published survey results to benchmark North American CCTOs, including trial volume, accrual, full time equivalents (FTEs), and budget. The survey was readministered in 2023 to assess contemporary CCTO performance and capacity with results presented here. METHODS: The 28 question 2023 survey was sent to directors of AACI's clinical member cancer centers. Survey participation was voluntary, no compensation was provided, and data requested covered operations during 2022. Definitions were consistent with National Cancer Institute (NCI) CCTO reporting requirements and AACI staff anonymously compiled results for descriptive statistical reporting. RESULTS: The survey response rate was 61% (60/99). The median annual CCTO budget was $11.5 million (M) US dollars (USD) versus $8.2M USD in 2018. These budgets support a median of 150 FTEs versus 104 previously, and a median total of 384 versus 280 interventional treatment trials and a median of 479 versus 531 interventional treatment accruals. Sources of support for CCTO annual budgets were primarily from industry revenue (45.3%) or institutional support (31.7%). Nearly 60% of centers reported activating NCI-sponsored studies within 90 days but only 9% reported meeting a 90-day activation timeline for industry sponsored studies. CONCLUSION: Contemporary benchmarks for CCTO operations through this survey demonstrate larger staff sizes, larger budgets, more trials supported, but fewer patients enrolled to interventional treatment trials in comparison with 2018. These data shine a critical light on the increasing complexity of cancer clinical trials, the importance of external funding sources, and necessary operational efficiency upgrades to provide cutting-edge cancer research and care.

Strategies to Promote Nurses' Engagement in Clinical Research: Description of Two Nurse Scholar Programs.

Innovative programs are needed to build a pipeline of future nurse scientists necessary to generate practice-based evidence for optimal healthcare and to address the serious shortage of PhD-prepared nurses. This paper describes two nurse scholar programs based in one large, Magnet® designated healthcare institution that aim to provide clinical registered nurses (RNs) with mentored research opportunities in order to ultimately build an internal pipeline of practice-based nurse scientists. The Clinical Nurse Scholar Program provides clinical RNs the opportunity to conduct a research study under the mentorship of a senior nurse scientist. The Nursing Research Scholar Program provides a clinical RN enrolled in a PhD program or who recently completed a PhD program with an opportunity to gain enhanced research training and acquire new research skills. These two scholar models have the potential to be replicated in other institutions to enhance the development of future nurse scientists and to address a critical national shortage of PhD-prepared nurse scientists.