Increasing Research Opportunities for Our Patients

Participating in research can advance healthcare for yourself or others. Automatically opting patients into research outreach means they may be contacted about research opportunities by physicians and researchers other than those who currently treat them.  

Our general consent to treat form now allows Carilion researchers, in addition to treating physicians, to contact patients about research opportunities. Prior to the new change, patients could be contacted by their physician but not by physicians who were not part of their direct care. All research outreach initiatives must receive approval from the Carilion Clinic Institutional Review Board (IRB) before initiating contact with patients.

Clinical trials are a large component of the research portfolio at Carilion, which underscores our goal to conduct patient-centered research. Clinical trials are research studies that test new and improved medical treatments for a broad range of conditions. Our trials are performed under strict ethical and regulatory standards. Clinical trials seek to determine whether or not the drug or treatment being studied is equal to, or better than, the current standard of care.

Patients have the opportunity to opt out of research. We have created this landing page to describe how to opt out and to address any questions patients may have about our research.

To guide this growth, Carilion has launched a new Research Governance Structure centered around the Executive Research Council (ERC) chaired by Dr. Robert Trestman, the Executive Research Sponsor. The ERC will lead the strategic direction of Carilion’s research, foster innovation and strengthen partnerships with key collaborators like Radford University, Virginia Tech, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.

For more information about our new research outreach initiative, please email Research and Development at research@carilionclinic.org. 

Research studies are approved and overseen by the Carilion Clinic Institutional Review Board (IRB) to protect the rights of participants. For information about participant rights, please email irb@carilionclinic.org.