Restructuring Clinical Research at URMC

Stephen Dewhurst, Ph.D., vice dean for Research, announced this week that the University of Rochester Medical Center’s clinical research leadership is being restructured. Search committees led by Dewhurst and Jeffrey Lyness, M.D., Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, are working to identify internal candidates for two top clinical research positions:

• Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research, a position currently held by Jill Halterman, M.D., M.P.H.
• Director of the Clinical Research Office, a newly role that will oversee research resources and support faculty researchers.

Halterman, who helped guide the reorganization, will continue on as Senior Associate Dean until a new candidate is identified.  In addition to serving as chief of General Pediatrics at URMC, Halterman will pursue new opportunities to expand her nationally recognized clinical research program in childhood asthma.

Within the new structure, the Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research will continue to advocate for clinical researchers, promote population health research, and fortify connections between basic and clinical scientists, while leading several new initiatives. The new Senior Associate Dean will work to leverage clinical genomics for research and bolster expertise in biomedical informatics.  This may enhance the University’s ability to meet researchers’ genome sequencing needs in-house and help researchers mine large amounts of data, like eRecord patient data, that would confound conventional data processing systems.

The new Clinical Research Office will support the Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research by overseeing all phases of clinical research and serving as a nexus of research resources for faculty. The office will also offer more faculty support – especially early stage investigators – in the form of rigorous training; help developing budgets; and facilitating interactions with potential trial sponsors.

With a new clinical research management system, the Clinical Research Office will also help faculty operate clinical trials as efficiently as possible. The system will conduct feasibility studies, help researchers manage their trials, and avoid reinventing the wheel with each new trial.

These changes will not only boost our ability to attract external funding, it will allow us to conduct better trials that will impact patients sooner.

How To Apply:

Learn more about the Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research position and contact Jeffrey Lyness, M.D., with any questions. A URMC search committee will review all candidates.

You can find more information about the Director of the Clinical Research Office position here (select "Current Employees," log in to HRMS and search for job number 204791). Contact Daina Bullwinkel, director of Executive and Senior Faculty Recruitment at URMC, with any questions.

Michael Hazard | 11/2/2017