Office of Clinical Research | Tampa General Hospital

Office of Clinical Research

Welcome to The Office of Clinical Research (OCR) and The Center of Research Excellence (CORE)

The Office of Clinical Research (OCR) is a centralized clinical research enterprise within Tampa General Hospital (TGH). TGH is the only Level I Trauma Center in the Tampa Bay region. Additionally, TGH is one of the top organ transplant centers in the country and it’s recognized nationally as a comprehensive stroke center. Affiliated with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, TGH is the region’s first and largest teaching hospital. TGH is distinguished for transplant, cardiovascular, internal medicine, orthopedic, obstetrics, urology, endocrinology, and pediatric research, and cancer, parathyroid and thyroid, and trauma research are growing to prominence.  

Services Offered

Regulatory:

  • Submissions to centralized institutional review boards

  • Credentialing

  • Document retention

Pharmacy:

  • Randomization

  • Investigational drug maintenance and storage

  • Drug dispensation

Compliance:

Financial:

  • Coverage analysis

  • Budget development

  • Financial management

  • Billing

  • Contracts

Clinical Services: Center of Research Excellence

  • Pre-site selection facilitation

  • Site initiation visits

  • Research coordination

  • Study coordination services from site initiation to close-out visit. Coordinator services include recruitment, screening, subject enrollment, study visits/procedures, packaging, and shipping, source documentation, case report form completion, and long-term record storage.

  • Research activities/study visits (case report forms, physical exams, labs, etc.)

  • Specimen banking and shipment

  • Serious/ adverse events reporting and tracking

  • Investigational drug services (randomization, maintenance, drug storage, dispensation)

  • Dedicated outpatient facilities include fully equipped exam rooms for extended outpatient visits/IV infusions.

  • Our clinical research team consists of research nurses, research coordinators, research specialists and research assistants who work with the research participants!

Additional Support:

  • Risk and feasibility analysis

  • Grant application

  • Budget development 

  • Protocol development

  • Biostatistical support

  • Manuscript editing

Conflict of Interest

The Office of Research Compliance monitors the COI disclosures of our research investigators and study teams. Investigators are asked during the protocol submission process about any potential conflicts of interest they may have with the sponsor(s) of the research protocol. When a disclosure is made, we work with the investigator or study team member to determine whether the interest will require management. We use a template COI management plan to create a plan that is appropriate for the type and the amount of interest.

For more information about Investigator and study team member COI, please review our policy OCR-255: Investigator Conflicts of Interest for Research.

Scientific Misconduct

The Office of Research Compliance maintains a policy and a process to deal with any allegations of Scientific Misconduct (also referred to as Research Misconduct). Scientific Misconduct is limited to the following three behaviors: (1) fabrication (e.g., making up data or results), (2) falsification (e.g., manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results), and (3) plagiarism (e.g., using another person’s ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit).

Please contact the Office of Research Compliance if you are aware of any of these activities. We are prepared to assess allegations, including an initial inquiry as well as a formal investigation, should that be warranted. For more information on Scientific Misconduct, please review our policy OCR-231: Handling Potential Research Misconduct.