ST. LOUIS - Mercy Research was named a winner of the St. Louis Business Journal’s inaugural Cutting Edge Award, which recognizes the innovative work at Mercy to disrupt the research industry. Mercy Research’s centralization of all research activities in a community health system sets it apart along with its unique research offering: the Supersite® study.
In July 2016, Mercy centralized all research activities across its four state service area into a stand-alone, not-for-profit entity known as Mercy Research. This type of infrastructure is unusual, especially for community health systems. As a result, Mercy Research leaders speak to national audiences on the value of this organizational structure.
“Consolidating clinical research support across the entire health system allows for standardization of clinical, business and regulatory processes and use of shared tools across a broad geography,” said JoAnne Levy, Mercy Research vice president. “This leads to increased compliance and improved risk management ultimately making research better and safer for our patients. It also increases stewardship by consolidating financials and allowing for better informed and more strategic decision-making.”
The organizational structure of Mercy Research also spawned a very unique research offering: the Supersite® study. This concept offers operational and clinical benefits to Mercy and Mercy Research by optimizing the use of resources and the deployment of operations to improve financial stewardship. It benefits the industry, allowing them to open a study in more than one Mercy location and/or state, with only one contract and one budget rather than multiple contracts and budgets for each location.
“While our centralized structure allows for more efficient and cost-effective clinical studies as well as more diverse patient populations to be accessed for participation,” Levy said, “it all comes back to more options for our patients and ultimately improving care.”
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