NEWS
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
Clinical Trials Signify WVSOM’ s Increased Commitment to Research
The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine( WVSOM) has long had a reputation for providing a high-quality education to medical students. While scientific inquiry has always been a part of that education, the school is expanding its research focus to include externally funded clinical trials.
This summer, WVSOM’ s Center for Rural and Community Health( CRCH) received funding for two trials to evaluate how workplace support programs improve recovery and clinical outcomes for people with substance use disorders( SUD).
Brian Hendricks, PhD, executive director of WVSOM’ s CRCH and the principal investigator for both studies, said the institution’ s entry into clinical trials reflects a broader interest in conducting applied research.
“ Clinical trials are the gold standard of health research,” Hendricks said.“ These efforts alert our statewide partners to the fact that WVSOM is capable of more robust and clinically rigorous studies. They also serve as an indicator of well-timed growth given the news of our expanding research enterprise.”
In August, the school hosted its WVSOM Bio event, which celebrated the upcoming major expansion of its Fredric W. Smith Science Building and showcased West Virginia’ s Greenbrier Valley a s a potential hub for the bioscience industry. Hendricks said while bench science— hands-on research conducted in a lab setting— will be a focus of the expanded facility, clinical trials and population-based studies can help facilitate new partnerships that lead to more opportunities for WVSOM and its community.
Both clinical trials evaluate a work-based intervention called Community Restitution Apprenticeship-Focused Training( CRAFT), designed to support individuals in recovery from SUD. CRAFT works by pairing people in recovery with supportive employers who will provide mentorship. Individuals complete volunteer hours to gain skills related to their career aspirations.
The studies will track changes in feelings about participants’ recovery, community re-integration, and Greenbrier County Day report programmatic performance.
Although the trials don’ t involve pharmaceuticals or medical devices, they meet the National Institutes of Health’ s( NIH) definition of clinical trials because participants are prospectively assigned to an intervention to evaluate its effects on biomedical or behavioral health outcomes.
The two trials use the same design but focus on different populations. One, funded by the West Virginia First Foundation,
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