Clinical Resources Core

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Although some improvement has been made since the Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resources (OSCTR) initiation, Oklahoma remains consistently in or near the bottom 10% of states for the overall health of its population. Oklahoma’s residents disproportionately suffer from chronic health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis/autoimmunity. Oklahomans have a life expectancy of 4 years shorter than the average US citizen, while American Indians have a life expectancy of more than 7 years shorter than other groups within the US. With high percentages of rural (34%) and tribal (16%) populations, Oklahoma has unique challenges and opportunities to implement clinical and translational research (CTR) projects and dissemination and implementation research to improve health and disease outcomes. The Clinical Resources (ClinRes) Core of the OSCTR has built a centralized system to support human subjects research focused on these issues. The Core provides clinical research facilities and staff to assist with participant recruitment and regulatory approvals, a CAP-certified Biorepository that has allowed the OSCTR to adopt or establish registries, repositories, and cohorts to assist investigators in obtaining and utilizing high-quality samples to support their research efforts, and infrastructure for accessing de-identified patient data to support clinical research projects. These efforts have allowed the Core to support the careers of multiple CTR investigators, including researchers who are members of the under-represented minority communities in the state. The ClinRes Core will continue to provide this invaluable access to sample collections while supporting the establishment and growth of new repositories focusing on the health issues of greatest concern to our populations, including cancer, diabetes, and arthritis. The ClinRes core will continue to work with the Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core to build on the strong relationships developed with smaller community organizations across the state during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, these collaborations enhance the overall opportunities of our CTR investigators to expand clinical study and trial access to residents throughout the state to help increase participant diversity and address our rural and minority health disparities. The ClinRes Core will continue to provide junior investigators with essential assistance with institutional IRB applications, protocols, data safety monitoring boards, and other regulatory requirements and will work with the Administrative Core to make access to resources and information more accessible to investigators, clinicians, clinical research staff, and participants through the Gateway to Oklahoma portal. With the CEO Tribal Engagement Unit, we will assist investigators in working with the Indian Health Service and tribal IRBs, ensuring the protection of both individual human subjects and tribal community populations. Finally, we will continue developing and supporting resources to grow our clinical research informatics capacity to facilitate local and national research efforts.