Process Innovation Improves Trial Operation Efficiency.

Background: Despite the fact that unaddressed delays in clinical trial operation could severely compromise the overall effort invested, there seems to be a lack of concerted effort in reforming such delays. This study evaluated the composite effect of initiatives in reforming trial operation efficiency.

Methods: A high-volume academic medical center in Korea has implemented various initiatives to improve the trial operation efficiency by expediting times from institutional review board (IRB) submission to approval, from IRB submission to trial open for subject enrollment, and from trial open to first patient-in.

A Trial Activation Initiative to Accelerate Trial Opening in an Academic Medical Center.

Delays in trial opening should be considered critical for the sake of not only the sponsor but the patients, as they may result in inequities of care. The Asan Medical Center, in Seoul, Korea, implemented a trial activation initiative in July 2012, in an aim to expedite the trial initiation timeline. Time intervals between trial initiation steps and the rate of institutional review board (IRB) and clinical trial agreement (CTA) parallel submission were assessed.

Improving the quality of cancer pain management in an academic medical center emergency department.

The impact and outcomes of the implementation of a pain management guideline and pain assessment standard operating procedure (SOP) in a cancer-specific emergency department are evaluated in this article. After implementation of the SOP, the number of pain assessments conducted per patient during hospitalization increased, as did the percentage of patients who underwent a pain assessment at admission, within one hour after analgesic medication was administered, and at regular intervals.

Nanoslit Confined DNA at Low Ionic Strengths.

We present nanoslit confined DNA conformations at very low ionic strengths and a theory to explain most measurements for single DNA molecule size under strong nanoslit confinement. Very low ionic strength conditions not only increase the DNA persistence length dramatically, but also cause DNA molecules to swell to the extent that the effective diameter of DNA becomes larger than the nanoslit height. By accounting for these effects, our results and theory provide a reasonable clue for a current controversy regarding the dependence of the DNA conformation on slit height (), persistence length (), and effective diameter ().