SOM Town Hall on Clinical and Translational Research

December 8, 2025

The SOM recently held a Town Hall on Clinical and Translational Research (November 24, 2025) – Demystifying Clinical Research Administration. The session recording is available for viewing and the presentation slides are attached (see below).

We hope you found the discussion informative and gained valuable insights into the resources available to support research at Duke University. Should you wish to provide feedback on the Town Hall or have suggestions for future sessions, please contact us at somclinicalresearch@duke.edu.

Below are key resources mentioned during the Town Hall:

Research Administration Support Resource (RASR): The list of RASR Zones and Directors is on slide 19 of the attached slides. All SOM departments are now supported by RASR, from the initial proposal stage to project closeout. If you are experiencing clinical research administration challenges, please contact your RASR Zone Director.
myRESEARCHsuite Resources
- myRESEARCHhome is a personalized portal for the Duke research community with tools designed for faculty, research staff, research administrators, and trainees. The portal consolidates project data, compliance information, and research resources from multiple systems into a single, user-friendly, customizable interface.
- myRESEARCHpath is the institution-wide interactive research roadmap that aims to ensure research quality and integrity by directing users to process, policy, tools, and resources in the context of a project lifecycle. This web-based tool is applicable to faculty, research staff, administrators, and trainees. Also available via myRESEARCH Home.
- myRESEARCHnavigators ensure that researchers are knowledgeable about relevant resources, collaborators, processes, and best practices for performing research at Duke. They can provide 1:1 support to investigators in need of guidance on research processes and can help investigators locate needed resources. Navigators provide individual and group on-boarding to investigators and staff who are new to Duke.
Data Front Door: Duke’s Data Front Door is a single entry point into Research Data Support Services at Duke.
Duke Office of Clinical Research (DOCR) Resources
- DOCR provides navigation, tools, and training to support the conduct of clinical research in which Duke serves as an investigative site. DOCR is a consolidated group of research support professionals who are skilled in all aspects of clinical research, including study startup, database development, and project coordination.
- Industry Rapid Study Startup Initiative: For more information, contact michelle.mack@duke.edu or view the slides and recording from the Research Wednesday: Industry Partnerships and Rapid Startup presentation held on November 19, 2025.
- DOCR Help email: docr.help@dm.duke.edu
- DOCR Dashboards (accessible via VPN): This includes a link to the Industry Clinical Research Study Startup Dashboard which utilizes data from OnCore, IRIS (IRB), and Innovate (contracts) to track the study startup process from beginning to end. Some dashboards are restricted, and new dashboards will be added to this page over time. See attached document on how to add the dashboards as a quick link in MyResearchHome and how to view the “pizza tracker” from the Awaiting Institutional Approval dashboard.
- DOCR Policy Chatbot (beta version, accessible via VPN): A tool to help Duke clinical research teams quickly get policy information related to clinical research from DOCR, IRB, finance, the research policy manual, and DHTS.

We look forward to your continued engagement and collaboration.

Susanna Naggie, MD, Vice Dean for Clinical and Translational Research, Duke University School of Medicine; Director, Duke CTSI

Geeta Swamy, MD, Associate Vice President for Research, Duke University; Executive Vice Dean for Clinical Sciences & Research Administration, Duke University School of Medicine

Charles D. Scales, Jr., MD, MSHS, FACS, Associate Dean for Clinical Research Initiatives, Duke University School of Medicine

Svati Shah, MD, MHS, Associate Dean for Translational Research and Director of the Duke Precision Genomics Collaboratory