Research Information
Background information on the GCRC for Stanford clinical investigators to reference for their own grant applications.
Stanford GCRC background:
The General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at Stanford was founded in 1962, as an NIH-funded core facility for the School of Medicine. The unit includes 10 inpatient beds and two outpatient suites, a dietary kitchen, laboratory, computer center, and office space totaling 5,573 square feet of space on the G1 and H1 floors of Stanford Hospital. This space was renovated for the GCRC at a cost of $1.7 million by the School of Medicine in 1992. A pediatric component supports research in the neonatal ICU and other satellite facilities within the Packard Children's Hospital.
The GCRC has a distinguished history in supporting clinical research at Stanford, including the development of cardiac transplantation, the cure of Hodgkin's disease, the introduction of monoclonal antibodies as therapies for cancers, and studies of insulin resistance in diabetes. These studies have played a major role in establishing Stanford's reputation for clinical excellence and innovation. The GCRC currently supports 108 active protocols studying new therapies for cancers, HIV infection, insulin resistance and its relationship to type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD), psychotic depression, and other diseases, as well as studies involving nutrition and therapeutic compliance. These protocols involve more than 100 faculty members from 12 academic departments.
The GCRC has received outstanding reviews from the NIH in its past two 5-year renewal cycles, in 1996 and 2001. The budget for the current year 41 of the grant (around $4.2 million) includes partial salaries for 12 faculty members, as well as nursing, dietary, bioinformatics, laboratory, and administrative personnel. The Principal Investigator of the GCRC grant is the dean, Dr. Philip Pizzo, and the Program Director is Dr. Branimir Sikic.
Because of steadily increasing numbers of investigators and protocols, the census for the past year was 1,256 inpatient days and 5,433 outpatient visits. The large majority (95%) of the research projects on the unit are funded by grants to the individual investigators from the NIH and non-profit foundations ("A" category protocols). The remainder, around 5%, are protocols funded by industry sponsored contracts ("D" category studies) which pay the GCRC for nursing and bed charges. These charges accrue to the grant as a credit, and other ancillary charges are passed on directly to the investigators' contracts.
The GCRC grant includes nominal support for ancillary costs related to "A" category studies, amounting to around $70 per inpatient day and $7 per outpatient visit, for central supplies, pharmacy costs, and laboratory charges not covered by other sources. Stanford negotiates a discounted rate with the Federal Government (HHS) for these charges, which currently is 29% for inpatient and 31% for outpatient ancillary items. For industry sponsored ("D" category) protocols on the GCRC, the ancillary pricing and billing are similar to other non-GCRC industry sponsored trials. The discounts for clinical research costs are those negotiated by the ACCESS program or the individual investigator.
For further information, click on: http://ClinicalResearch.Stanford.edu/
