- SC CTSI Biostatistics: Receive help with designing your research study, developing a statistical plan, and more. This is a paid service, but up to one hour of consultation is free. Request a free consultation here.
- CTTI Webinar on Adapting Clinical Trials during COVID-19: View this webinar to learn about solutions for switching to remote and virtual participant visits.
- CTTI Webinar on Designing High-Quality COVID-19 Treatment Trials: View this webinar to learn about how to design high-quality treatment trials to address the COVID-19 global pandemic.
COVID-19 Research at USC
To view current research projects, share your project, view resources, and/or identify collaborators, visit the COVID-19 Research Database here.
Approval of research involving COVID-19 biospecimens or access to patients with or at risk for COVID-19: To respond to the volume of research need for COVID-19, SC CTSI is working with the USC Biomedical IRB to assist USC investigators proposing human subjects research related to COVID-19.
Effective immediately, investigators requesting COVID-19 biospecimens or access to patients with or at risk for COVID-19 must submit their requests through this portal before submission to the IRB. The proposals will be evaluated by the COVID research prioritization committee. The research prioritization committee will evaluate the proposals based on scientific merit, benefit to patients, operational feasibility, competing studies, and availability of funding. Those proposals receiving a sufficiently high priority score will then be permitted to submit an IRB application.
Only official requests submitted through this portal and receiving a sufficiently high priority score will be considered by the USC Biomedical IRB.
To read more about the current research relating to COVID-19 happening at USC, click here.
- USC Health Sciences Profiles: Click here to view listings of USC researchers and their publications, research areas and more.
- COVID-19 Researchers and Projects: Click here to view current COVID-19 related research projects maintained by the USC Office of Research.
- COVID-19 Trials, Actively Enrolling Database: This spreadsheet serves as a quick guide to COVID-19 trials at Keck that are actively enrolling. Click here to view the database.
- Email rd@sc-ctsi.org for a consultation to learn about COVID-related and non COVID-related collaboration opportunities.
- Trial Promoter: This is a paid digital media advertisement tool and service in which SC CTSI staff will work with researchers to automate recruitment on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, Quora, and more (depending on the nature of the study and target population). Click here for more information. Email communications@sc-ctsi.org for a consultation.
- Personalized Study Landing Page: Create a free, personalized landing page for your research study, which will be listed and is searchable within the Clinical Studies Directory of USC. Users can self-edit their own pages. If your study is COVID-related, you can receive expedited IRB review by notating it in the amendment submission. Click here for directions on how to create a study page.
- mHealth Consultations: For researchers that want to learn more about using mobile technologies to track real-time observations and interventions, and integrate mHealth into new research designs. Click here to request a consultation.
- SC CTSI Workforce Development Webinar about Recruiting Participants Online for Survey and Intervention Research: This webinar describes lessons learned from a series of studies that used social media websites to recruit U.S. veterans into two survey research efforts and a randomized controlled trial addressing heavy alcohol use. As an increasing number of research studies are moving online, the methods described to reach this typically difficult-to-engage group using the Internet alone can be applied to a number of other populations and research designs.
- SC CTSI Workforce Development Webinar about Marketing to Prospective Research Participants Online: This webinar describes how to effectively recruit subjects for a clinical trial and how modern technology and social media plays a role in the recruitment and screening processes of clinical trials.
- SC CTSI Tipsheet for Preventing False Participants in Online Research: This tipsheet describes issues relating to informed consent and participant verification for studies using internet recruitment.
- Free Social Media Recruitment Strategy Consultations: SC CTSI Communications provides up to one hour of free consultation for researchers and study teams wanting to learn more about how to successfully leverage social media to recruit participants for their projects. To request a consultation, email communications@sc-ctsi.org.
- Recruitment Material Design Services: SC CTSI can design flyers, brochures, postcards and other print materials that can be used for recruitment purposes. This is a paid service. We can create content in multiple languages to fit the needs of the target population. Click here to submit a request.
- CTSI-related Funding: CTSI offers voucher awards, pilot grants and other types of funding to support research. Click here for a full list.
- Office of Research Funding Resources (COVID and non COVID related): This list is maintained by the USC Office of Research. Click here to access it.
- Current Funding Opportunities (NIH). Click here for more information.
- Email rd@sc-ctsi.org for a consultation to learn about COVID-related and non COVID-related funding opportunities.
- COVID-19 Research Guidance and Policies: Click here to view the latest guidance and policies relating to research conduct at USC and Keck in light of COVID-19.
- OPRS Webinar on How to Continue Research Online: View this webinar on how to make adjustments to your research if you are no longer able to connect with your research participants in person. Learn more on best practices for reframing your research question, data collection, and sampling, so that you can adapt to non-direct participant interactions.
- CTTI Webinar on Identifying Best Practices for Conducting Clinical Trials with the New FDA Guidance During the COVID-19 Pandemic: View this webinar to learn about best practices and FDA guidelines to conducting trials during COVID-19.
- CTTI Webinar on Adapting Clinical Trials during COVID-19: Solutions for Switching to Remote and Virtual Visits: View this webinar to learn about tools and ways in which research teams can continue to collect data and conduct remote patient visits during social distancing and stay-at-home orders.
- REDCap: REDCap is a secure, HIPAA-compliant web-based application designed to quickly take your database or survey concept for a research study to production level. With REDCap, you can securely input data from anywhere in the world and have real-time data entry validation. Click here for more information. For remote research templates in REDCap, please contact cri@sc-ctsi.org.
- eConsent Templates: REDCap templates that can be used to electronically consent research participants can be found here to the atlassian page.
- Video Conferencing Tools: There are various options for video conferencing tools that are secure, HIPAA-compliant and endorsed by USC IT. There is a HIPAA-compliant version of Zoom; click here for more information.
- Keeping in Touch with Study Team Members: Stay connected with your collaborators and research team members through USC-licensed versions of Zoom, Slack, Google Hangouts, and more. Click here for a detailed list of options.
- Click here to view the instructions and rules for returning back to campus to conduct basic and clinical research.
- Click here to view the study monitor accommodations at Keck Medical Center Facilities.
- Click here to view the study monitor accommodations at Keck Medical Center Facilities. Please view this PowerPoint with more information about IntelliCentrics Enrollment requirements.
- Text Messaging Services: EZ Texting and Remind are both excellent tools for text-message outreach. EZ Texting is an SMS mass marketing tool that allows you to send out alerts, promote your research, and create group messages. Remind acts in a similar way and facilitates both mass text alerts and two-way messaging.
- Twilio: Twilio is a REDCAP compatible plug-in that can text survey invite links and messages to research participants. All participant data is stored in REDCap. Click here to learn more.
- MyCap: MyCap makes it easy for researchers to capture participant/patient reported outcomes using mobile devices. MyCap is a feature of REDCap.
- CTTI Webinar on Engaging Racial and Ethnic Minority Patient Populations in COVID-19 Clinical Trials: This webinar presented by CTTI covers best practices for how to engage racial and ethnic minority patients in COVID-related trials. Click here for more information.