In 1969, a group of researchers at Duke University Medical Center began gathering data on patients undergoing coronary angiography at the hospital. The physicians then entered the data into a computer database and analyzed it to improve the care of subsequent patients. The Duke Clinical Research Institute sprouted from this seed.

The database eventually became the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Disease, the largest of its kind in the world, and the researchers became the founders of the DCRI. After more than a decade of observational studies, they began coordinating multisite clinical trials, using their bedside knowledge of patient care to ask realistic, significant questions in their study designs and the expertise of our biostatisticians to translate study data into answers. The addition of outcomes research expertise also gave DCRI investigators insight into how these answers were improving the lives of patients.

In the 1990s, those multisite trials expanded beyond the borders of the U.S., and the DCRI began coordinating some of the most significant international trials in cardiovascular medicine. Soon, the same proven models were being applied to other therapeutic areas, and the DCRI’s extensive mentoring and fellowship programs ensured that the lessons learned were passed on to the next generation of scientists. At the same time, the DCRI’s capabilities grew to encompass site management, safety surveillance, communications, and all other aspects of conducting clinical research on any scale.

Today, the DCRI has just over 990 employees, including 180 faculty, and has enrolled more than 581,250 participants worldwide in completed clinical trials. Our growth continues as we expand into new fields, such as genomics, and add experts in more than 20 therapeutic areas.