Research Network
Foundation for Osteopathic Emergency Medicine
The FOEM Research Network is designed to promote quality clinical emergency medicine research by providing an infrastructure for our EM residents and core faculty to conduct multi-center trials. The ED is an ideal site for phase 3 and 4 clinical trials because it acts like an epidemiologic window to the community, triaging and treating large numbers of patients in a captive setting and performing disease incidence screening that could have a long-term effect on overall community health, disease prevention, and health promotion. The FRN can take a research study developed by a resident/faculty team in a single institution and extend it to one or more other residencies for a more rapid acquisition of quality data. During the last 10 years, ACOEP has seen a dramatic transformation in the development of a growing resident research culture with widespread interest and productivity through adoption of a mandatory research requirement for residency graduation and demonstration of competency. It is the vision of FOEM that the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians (ACOEP) can, through its 52 residency training programs, achieve the next level of research excellence on a national level and improve patient care and safety.
Another exciting feature of the FRN is that its provide a venue for Pharmaceutical Companies and Clinical Research Organizations to conduct single site or multi-center trials within our research network hospital systems. During a time when our healthcare system faces a shrinking financial base, a more cost effective, austere approach to clinical research site selection by the pharmaceutical and medical device industry is required. With less research funding available, our cost free research network and easily searchable site database can be a very attractive and effective tool for pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations to use our network sites for the following reasons:
Our 52 residency programs provide geographically heterogeneous patient populations avoiding regional bias.
- The majority of osteopathic emergency medicine residency programs are closely aligned with a medical school or university with research pedigrees.
- Combined, our residency programs treat over of 2 million patients annually in different hospital settings, i.e., urban, suburban, and rural.
- Segregated totals of types of patients by discharge diagnosis can be made available by institution selected as a research site upon request. As a network, we can tabulate patient populations by diagnosis and make this information available to the targeted companies, according to market and area of emphasis in research as patients are enrolled in studies
- By doing multi-center studies in our consortium, individual research bias in minimized.
- Pharmaceutical, medical device companies and CRO’s who utilize the network to select research sites from our hospital databases would experience significant cost reduction for expenses incurred from initial site selection phase.
FRN Structure:
The administrative structure of the FRN consists of a Steering Committee which has oversight responsibility for all aspects of the organization. It is comprised of physicians with excellent research pedigrees, and experience in doing multi center trials.
FRN Steering Committee-
Chair- Victor J. Scali, DO, FACOEP-D
Members- Michael Allswede, DO, FACOEP
Juan Acosta, DO, FACOEP-D
Keith Bradley, MD, FACEP
Brandon Lewis, DO
David Hogan, DO
Michael Spohn, MD
Sherry Turner, DO, FACOEP
Stephanie Whitmer
Representative from ACOEP Resident Chapter
Representative from ACOEP Student Chapter
FOEM Research Network Administrative Structure
FRN Research Project Coordinator for Multi-Center Trials- Dave Hogan
FRN Associate Coordinator: Michael Spohn, MD, FACEP
Assist individual residencies in dissemination of resident studies to other sites.
Review multi center trials offered to FRN from Pharma /CRO’s for feasibility and assist in appropriate residency or community hospital site selection.
Review multi-center trials offered from Pharma/CRO’s and assign to community non- teaching hospitals in the network.
Residency Research/Program Directors: See Residency databases for designates
Gets IRB approval at their individual institutions; insures multi-center study is done in timely fashion with resident/faculty involvement.
Pharma /CRO Liaisons: Eileen Singer ,DO, FACOEP, Victor J. Scali, DO,FACOEP-D
Visits or contacts pharmaceutical companies, promotes network and procures quality grants within their regional travel radius
Designated pharmaceutical company liaison representatives assigned from groups of interested research directors to contact and / or visit targeted companies to promote the network and solicit studies on behalf of the network. The regional liaison representatives would be chosen on their experience and success in acquiring grants in the past for their own residency and proximity geo-graphically to areas of high pharmaceutical company density, for instance, Northern New Jersey, Wilmington, Delaware, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina, etc.
Bio-statistician Reviewer: Juan Acosta, DO, FACOEP-D
Ensures multi –center trials by residencies and not sponsored by Pharma/CRO’s are properly powered, and that data collection instruments are compatibly constructed for tabulation by RedCap.
Grant Funding Collection & Disbursement Directors: Ms. Stephanie Whitmer
Sherry Turner, DO, FACOEP
Assures grant money is collected from companies at completion of studies. Disburses grant monies to individual residencies based on number of patients recruited to multi- center trial.
Medical-Legal Contract Reviewer: Mr. Josh Prober JD
Legal review of contracts, indemnification letters, malpractice insurance, payment structure, etc.
NARAP liaison: Keith Bradley MD, FACEP
National Alliance of Research Associates Program Director with ability to coordinate 23 member teaching program emergency department epidemiological studies
How can pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations get further information on accessing the FOEM Research Network and utilize sites for clinical studies ?
Please contact Martha O'Hanlon, our Executive Director at: 331-248-7799 or at info@acoep.org
For more information on how to access our valuable services to the pharmaceutical industry.