Calling All Community Researchers: Join Us for ASCO’s Community Research Forum 2015 Annual Meeting

Calling All Community Researchers: Join Us for ASCO’s Community Research Forum 2015 Annual Meeting

Guest Commentary

Aug 11, 2015

By Howard “Skip” A. Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO
Chair, Community Research Forum Council

This year’s Community Research Forum (CRF) Annual Meeting is right around the corner. As Chair of the CRF Council, I am very excited about the Meeting and would like to invite you to participate in this unique opportunity.

Established in 2010, the CRF is a solution-oriented venue for community-based research sites. Each year, the Forum holds its Annual Meeting, providing the opportunity for physician investigators and their research staff to network, discuss barriers, and collaborate to propose solutions to common challenges faced in doing research in community-based practices.

This year’s CRF Annual Meeting will be held at ASCO Headquarters in Alexandria, VA, on September 20-21. We are excited about new opportunities in the development and use of targeted therapies and anticancer agents to provide more personalized, effective care for patients. Since more than 80% of patients with cancer are seen in community-based practices, it is crucial that community oncologists and their teams have the tools and resources they need to lead and participate in clinical trials, and to make continued progress in cancer research. 

We have a very exciting lineup scheduled for this year’s meeting, with participants and presenters representing a range of practices and types of research programs. Participants will engage with one another in breakout sessions to address pain point areas related to conducting clinical research in a community-based practice, including coverage of clinical trials, contract negotiations, and practical considerations for precision medicine. Additionally, Dr. Stephen Grubbs, Director of ASCO’s new Clinical Affairs Department, will lead a session on the exemplary attributes of clinical trial sites, which will also introduce recipients of the Clinical Trials Participation Award (CPTA), an award that recognizes high-quality clinical research sites.

The meeting will also include presentations by internationally recognized speakers on personalized medicine and the challenges of molecular profiling. Additional discussions of clinical trial opportunities, including ASCO’s first-ever clinical trial, the Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study, will also take place.

Please join us for this great, unique opportunity to advance clinical research and engage with fellow colleagues from community research sites. Visit the CRF Annual Meeting page to register.

CRF has also developed valuable tools for community researchers, including ASCO Research Program Quality Assessment Tool, the ASCO Clinical Trial Workload Assessment Tool, and an online repository of resources. Visit the CRF page for more information about these resources, other CRF initiatives, and the CRF Annual Meeting.

Dr. Burris serves as Chair of the Community Research Forum Council and Chief Medical Officer at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, TN.

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