From 2000 to 2005, staff at the Institute of Medicine and the Commission on Life Sciences of the National Academies convened the Clinical Research Roundtable.

The purpose of the roundtable was to provide a forum for discussion among a wide variety of stakeholders (e.g., the academic health community, private-sector sponsors of clinical research, health plans and insurance companies) to enhance mutual understanding of and support for high-quality clinical research.

Key Results

• The roundtable met in executive session nine times at the Washington headquarters of the National Academies. The roundtable also held two workshops and three symposiums to examine more closely issues raised at the executive sessions. Discussions focused on four key areas related to clinical research:
  • Proactively engaging the public in the conduct, oversight, outcome and translation of clinical research.
  • Developing effective information systems that support clinical research.
  • Preparing an adequately trained workforce.
  • Increasing funding for clinical research.
  
  The meetings included an average of 25 participants each. (For a complete listing of the most recent members of the roundtable, see Appendix 1.) They included representatives of:
  • The academic health community
  • Federal agencies sponsoring and regulating clinical research
  • Private-sector sponsors of clinical research
  • Foundations
  • Public- and private-sector insurance programs
  • Health plans and insurance companies
  • Corporate purchasers of health care
  • Representatives of patient interests
  
  
• Project staff created a Web site containing a list and brief descriptions of the meetings and workshops, along with related reports, articles and downloadable PowerPoint® presentations. The site also includes links related to career resources for clinical researchers, resources for ethics and guidelines and related articles.

Roundtable participants published 10 articles and five reports related to topics examined at the sessions in journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of Investigative Medicine. Thirty-nine articles about the roundtable appeared in periodicals, including the New York Times and Medscape Medical News.

In addition to the RWJF grant, the project also received additional funding of $1,857,500 from the roundtable sponsors, each of whom was represented by participants on the roundtable. For a list of other funders, see the Appendix 2.

After the Grant

According to the project director, many of the participants of the roundtable went on to form the Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation, based at the Institute of Medicine. The forum conducts public workshops to examine issues in drug development. Information concerning the forum is available online.

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provided partial support for this project with two unsolicited grants totaling $448,093.