Inova Health Systm has joined the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network, a consortium of community hospitals with direct access to researchers and studies at the Baltimore-based medical science hub.
Patients seeking care at Inova's five hospitals will have more opportunities to participate in clinical trials than they do today, the systems said Wednesday in a news release.
In all-important clinical trials for medical research, researchers are often challenged to find a sufficiently large patient pool and to impose common protocols on the entire group. The network, created in 2009 with charter members Anne Arundel Medical Center and Greater Baltimore Medical Center, is meant to solve those problems by bringing patients and doctors outside of Johns Hopkins Medicine into the research fold.
John Niederhuber, the former National Cancer Institute director whom Inova hired to lead its new Translational Medicine Institute in 2010, has been appointed deputy director of the Hopkins network, along with Adrian Dobs, vice chair of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins.
"I am excited to bring Inova Health System and our patients to this outstanding clinical trials network," Niederhuber said in a prepared statement. "I look forward to re-engaging with Hopkins in this capacity and to do everything I can to help Dr. Dobs in her role leading the network."
Initially, the network will focus on expanding research into cancer, diabetes and surgical studies. Future collaborations are planned in pediatrics and intensive care, cardiovascular, brain diseases and others, according to Hopkins. Experts hope the network can speed the approval of new trials while ensuring good oversight.
