A cornerstone of the Center for Injury Science's Clinical Trials Unit is the novel Research Assistant Program. This program is the only UAB resource of its kind available to perform screening, recruitment, enrollment and protocol execution for time-sensitive research trials 24/7/365.
A research assistant job gives unusual responsibility to a handful of select undergraduate students. The center's need for trained research assistants who are always available came from a trauma trial protocol of the CIS Research Assistant Program – formerly called the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, or ROC – a 10-center clinical trial network for research on prehospital cardiopulmonary arrest and severe traumatic injury. Someone had to be there, ready when the ambulance arrived, any time of the day or night.
From that one protocol three years ago, the UAB Emergency Department and the Center for Injury Science now enroll patients in 19 different protocols that serve biomedical researchers in the departments of Emergency Medicine, Surgery, Anesthesiology, Neurology, Nephrology, Pathology and Microbiology.
The RA program is led by the UAB Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, the only Level I Trauma Center verified by the American College of Surgeons in the state of Alabama. The RA program consists of specially trained research assistants whose primary duty is to maintain a presence in University Hospital. We also have on-call personnel who are able to respond from home within 20 minutes of notification. The RA Program has been instrumental in over 50 clinical trials and enrolled over 22,000 participants, for investigators from multiple UAB departments. The RA Program has also conducted research recruitment outside of the University Emergency Department, in such locations as the Children's of Alabama Emergency Department and the UAB Women and Infants Center.
Our RA team members are a diverse group, consisting both of individuals with existing medical training or background, and others who are looking ahead to a career in medicine or a medical field. We have worked with a number of foreign medical school graduates who were seeking part-time work while pursuing educational opportunities at UAB. Other research assistants have been undergraduate students (particularly pre-med), as well as active EMS personnel.
The program has provided a unique opportunity for some research assistants to enhance and expand their current skills, while experiencing the fast-paced and vibrant patient care and clinical research environment of the UAB Emergency Department, which sees over 100,000 visits per year. All RAs receive extensive training and orientation to the operations of the emergency department, the trauma resuscitation bay, the operating room, and the critical care units within University Hospital. They have also received specialized training in data collection, good clinical practices, human subjects protection, HIPAA regulations, conflict of interest, blood-borne pathogens, as well as how to interact with the hospital's clinical staff. Our research assistants collect, organize and maintain data as required by each protocol. The RAs work closely with the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and are trained in running research laboratory equipment, sample collection, and how to process blood samples for shipping.
Learn more about our RA program, formerly known as the ROC RA program.
If you are interested in becoming a member of our RA program, or in learning whether we currently have any open positions, email Shannon Stephens at swstephens@uabmc.edu.