About Us
Testimonials
What people say about ACCRU:
At ACCRU, we aspire to deliver on our promises. We serve three kinds of members – investigators, community doctors, and industry sponsors. Here is what our members say about our work together to change the standard of patient care across the major disease groups:
I was initially introduced to ACCRU as a trainee during my fellowship at Ohio State University, but became an active participant when I joined on as faculty at the Mayo Clinic. When I first joined ACCRU, I was like a fish out of water and did not know how to develop an idea into a trial.
ACCRU allowed me to engage thought leaders in my field who helped mentor me through the process by making connections with industry partners, while challenging my thought processes. This ultimately led to two industry sponsored investigator initiated studies.
ACCRU provides a blend between research cooperative groups and industry sponsored trials. It promotes the best research ideas while removing some inherent challenges that are in other research groups. It has also allowed me to develop life-long friends and mentors from the community and academic sites across the country. – Mike Zappa, Program Coordinator – ResearchMayo Clinic
ACCRU provides an excellent infrastructure for investigators to develop novel clinical trials. ACCRU members from reputable comprehensive cancer centers are very collaborative and provide in-depth feedback, constructive criticism for research ideas. ACCRU has a very streamlined process starting from clinical trial proposal to full clinical trial protocol development and study activation. The staff at ACCRU is very seasoned and knowledgeable about clinical trials which enables smooth transition from concept development to study activation and successful completion. Working with ACCRU is very efficient and educational for junior faculty members. – Mehmet Akce, M.D.Emory University School of Medicine
ACCRU is a supportive and collaborative consortium of clinical trial sites and investigators. ACCRU has allowed me to open practice-changing clinical trials at leading clinical trial sites nationally. This has helped my clinical research grow, and supported development of new cancer treatments. – John Strickler, M.D.Duke University Medical Center
ACCRU was established with the vision of bringing novel therapies to cancer patients. As the group continued to grow, a robust translational science program was needed. I was excited to work with the team to help create a translational program for the entire ACCRU network, bringing cutting-edge science to all the trials. The ACCRU team has experience managing large biomarker programs and working with the top laboratories to push innovative and impactful science forward. ACCRU has the infrastructure in place allowing investigators to conduct novel trials that efficiently implement the next generation of biomarkers. ACCRU is small enough to quickly adapt to the evolving science, yet large enough to run clinical trials that can impact the delivery of cancer care. As science and clinical trials evolve, the ACCRU network remains poised for long-term success. – Andrew Nixon, Ph.DDuke University School of Medicine
I’ve worked with ACCRU for almost 10 years. They are my favorite foundation to work with for many reasons.
I know I can always find the information and documents I need, whenever I need them, by going on the website. When I’m doing an annual review and need to know when the last IDMC meeting was and the results, I can quickly go to the website to get that information. If I need the study closure date, it’s available without having to look in many different places. Everything is readily available. The weekly mailings clearly lay out what is available on the website and where it is, in addition to other pertinent information.
What I find most refreshing is that there isn’t a huge turnover in staff like there always is in this industry. The staff is wonderful to work with and always willing to help. It’s been a pleasure working with ACCRU! – Andrea de JesusMetro-Minnesota Community Oncology Research Consortium
As a community hospital site with a focus on NCORP research, resources can be limited, especially for industry studies. Study start-up, including contract and budget negotiations can take months, which can reduce the number of industry trials a community site can evaluate and open. Working with ACCRU, study start-up can be streamlined and is much more efficient. The master contract and pre-negotiated contracts and budgets for each study make the study start-up phase much clearer that our site is able to evaluate and activate industry studies much quicker. In addition, working with ACCRU provides a variety of studies to review each year which is very beneficial to a community site. The other major benefit of working with ACCRU is the reduction in regulatory work for our site. By having a central repository through the ACCRU ARMS portal, we do not have to compile policies, CVs, MLs, training, and other site staff documents that would be required for each separate study, thus reducing work burden on our regulatory department. Overall, our partnership with ACCRU is very beneficial to our research program and we are excited to continue this relationship in the future! – Stuart MohoneyClinical Trial Regulatory Professional, HSHS St. Vincent Hospital
USC has several ACCRU studies. In testimony to the use of ACCRU for some of our clinical trials, I appreciate the layout of the main ACCRU site, which allows the sites to have a “Dashboard” of the study as well as full access to the past and current protocol documents. ACCRU also sends notifications for study updates and/or documents that have expired or are missing from the documents site. This provides ease in study maintenance. – Carryl Du Bois, B.A.Clinical Research Regulatory Manager
Being members of ACCRU has ensured our research site access to well-designed and structured industry trials. The protocol review process, start-up procedures and documentation oversight are streamlined through a central portal, which is well-organized and user-friendly. Management of regulatory documents has become extensive in the research world today, and having an organization such as ACCRU to help oversee these necessary processes enables our site to conduct studies in an expedited timeline. ACCRU staff are experienced and dedicated, which has made my job that much easier! They are quick to address our questions, be our voice with the sponsors, and help us manage all the necessary regulatory activities. Thank you ACCRU! – Pam Shoup, CCRPDirector, Toledo Clinic Clinical Research
Weeding through pharma-sponsor proposed trial invitations and maintaining required regulatory documents can be a daunting and tedious task. ACCRU has streamlined this entire process and has made the activation and maintenance of a pharma trial easier for our community practice locations. ACCRU issues feasibility surveys, they supply a regulatory document portal to keep sites organized, and they issue gentle reminders when documents are due. Contracts are pre-negotiated, the needs of the sponsor are clearly defined, and support personnel are available for guidance along the way. As a busy Regulatory Coordinator tasked with oversight of both pharma and cooperative group trials in two separate offices, I appreciate all the regulatory support that ACCRU offers! – Ali Fleury, B.A., CCRPRegulatory Coordinator / CRA