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15th Annual AACI CRI Meeting Raises Bar for Attendance, Abstracts
Pictured clockwise from top left: Patient advocate Mel Mann; poster session networking; (L-R) panelists Dr. Mark Agulnik, Dr. Shaalan Beg, moderator Angela Fritsche; plenary session attendees. Photo credit: Randy Belice.
AACI’s Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) convened its 15th annual meeting June 26-28, in Rosemont, IL. More than 500 colleagues attended in person and 118 abstracts were submitted for presentation – both records for the increasingly popular event focused on clinical trial office operations.
Dr. Tara L. Lin, CRI steering committee chair, opened the meeting with a warm welcome and a look at CRI highlights from the past year. Dr. Thomas J. George, Jr., steering committee chair-elect, moderated the first panel discussion, which looked at innovative strategies for clinical trial recruitment.
A session featuring Drs. Min He and Gisele Sarosy, of the National Cancer Institute, provided an overview of recent and proposed changes to NCI’s Cancer Center Support Grant.
Day 2 kicked off with Dr. Ted A. James delivering a keynote presentation, "The Power of Positivity: Building a Stronger, More Resilient Clinical Cancer Research Team." Appearing virtually due to weather and airline travel challenges that affected many meeting attendees, Dr. James described how collaboration leads to innovation in clinical research, noting that strong relationships are key to achieving professional excellence.
Building on the themes of positivity and quality relationships from the morning's keynote, another session helped define the "work family" during a discussion of workplace values and culture, communication, and hiring practices.
Breakout sessions allowed attendees a closer look at topics including community outreach and diversity, equity, and inclusion; quality assurance, remote monitoring, and auditing; resource management and finance; training, career development, and staff retention; trial recruitment and study conduct; and trial start-up, activation, and protocol development.
These topics were also the focus of the research highlighted in the meeting abstracts, with three winning abstracts presented by Christina Wiess, Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine; Dr. Christy Spalink, Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone; and Dr. Jennifer Bollmer, Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center.
The day closed with an interactive vendor presentation by Triomics, titled "Activating Clinical Data for Research," which explored new developments in health care data technologies and artificial intelligence.
The meeting’s final day included a panel discussion about overcoming barriers to developing a community network for cancer clinical trials and two sessions focused on bridging the gap between clinical care and research operations.
Meeting supporters worked with AACI to create an environment conducive to learning, networking, and strategic innovation.
Supporters
Gold Level
Merck
Triomics
Silver Level
Actalent
Florence
Vitalief
Yunu
Bronze Level
Advarra
Deep 6 AI
Huron
Mint Medical
Veeva
Verily
WCG
WellSky
In addition to participating in plenary sessions and poster discussions, this year’s CRI attendees also had an opportunity to interact with 13 contracted exhibitors that each demonstrate a strong commitment to working with academic cancer centers to help solve operational challenges. AACI gratefully acknowledges support from the following exhibitors: Actalent, Advarra, Deep 6 AI, Florence, Huron, Mint Medical, Triomics, Veeva, Verily, Vitalief, WCG, WellSky, and Yunu.
Planning is underway for the 16th Annual AACI CRI Meeting, June 24-26, 2024, in Rosemont. Please contact AACI Program Manager Kendra Cameron to share your ideas for topics and speakers.