The investigation of the ability to perform a clinical research study within clinics was carried out in the Tsugaru area of Aomori Prefecture, as a first step toward the establishment of a regional network group of clinical research studies in this area. A questionnaire with nine questions on the following factors was distributed: 1) number of personnel in the clinic, 2) speciality of doctors in the clinic, 3) number of outpatients per day, 4) number of beds for inpatients, 5) previous experience taking part in a clinical research study, 6) problems to expect when starting the first clinical trial in ones own clinic, 7) benefit of a network group in a clinical research study, 8) what does doctor think about the education program for the clinical research study in the network group, 9) what does the doctor think about the clinical research coordinator (CRC) who provides support for the clinical trial. A total of 221 questionnaires were sent to clinic doctors within the area. The return rate of the questionnaires was 38%, and 23 doctors were a part of the Tsugaru Clinical Research Study Network Group, that is 10.4% of all questionnaires. Internalmedicine was the speciality of 83% of the members in the network group.About 1500 outpatients are treated in the Clinical Research Study Network Group each day. Our network group has a total of 150 beds for the treatment of inpatients. Eighty-four percent of the members had previous experience in a clinical trial. Fifty-six percent of the members were able to enter 4 or more patients for a clinical trial. The results of this survey suggest that our regional clinical research network has a high performance potential for a clinical trial.

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The investigation of the ability to perform of clinical research study in a hospital was carried out in the Tsugaru area of Aomori Prefecture, as a first step toward the establishment of a regional network group for clinical research studies in this area. A questionnaire was thirteen questions on the following factors was distributed: 1) number of personnel in the hospital, 2) names of clinical departments in the hospital, 3) number of outpatients per day, 4) number of beds for inpatients, 5) number of protocols accepted for performing a clinical research study in one year, 6) management rules of the Investigational Review Board (IRB), 7) management rules of clinical research study office, 8) clinical research coordinator (CRC) protocol for clinical research trial, 9) control protocol for clinical research drugs, 10) monitoring system of clinical data by a pharmaceutical company, 11) support program for the patients in the clinical research study, 12) distribution method of the profit from a pharmaceutical company within the hospital, 13) evaluation of the clinical research study in the hospital. Nineteen questionnaires were sent to hospitals in the Tsugaru area. The return rate of the questionnaire was 47%, and five hospitals belonged to the Tsugaru Clinical Research Study Network Group, that is 26% of all questionnaires . All six hospitals within the Clinical Research Network Group, which included a university hospital, are general hospitals . About three thousand outpatients are treated in the hospitals of our clinical research network each day. The six hospitals within our regional network group have a total of 1985 beds for the treatment of inpatients. All six hospitals have had previous experience performing clinical research studies. However, there were differences between hospitals in the number of accepted protocols and the number of patients enrolled in clinical research trials . Two hospitals have set up a clinical research office, and the department of pharmacy or the hospital office functions as a clinical research office in two hospitals, and a clinical research coordinator (CRC) is available in three hospitals, which included the university hospital. With the exception of the university hospital, there is no monitoring room in the participating hospitals. Based on these results, the hospitals within our clinical research network appear to be fully capable of performing a clinical research study, however, a clinical research infrastructure needs to be established at several of the hospitals.

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