A History of Innovation
DCRI’s legacy of innovation and impact dates back to 1969 with the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Disease (DDCD), which ushered in what was at the time a novel, computer-assisted, data-driven approach to generating evidence for cardiovascular clinical research studies. The Databank was the result of an idea of then-Chairman of Medicine Eugene A. Stead, Jr., MD, who led a research group within the Duke University Medical Center that also included C. Frank Starmer, MD, and Paul Elliott.
Today, the DDCD is the world’s oldest and largest cardiovascular database, containing data about both invasive cardiac procedures and noninvasive diagnostic procedures performed at Duke. Since the DDCD is continuously maintained, it has enabled DCRI faculty and staff to gain extensive experience with a long-term follow-up system, including ascertainment of hospital records.
The DDCD was officially created from the original Databank group in 1976. Before the founding of the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) in 1996, the DDCD made significant contributions to the field of clinical research, including:
- 1984: Created the first electronic electrocardiogram (eECG) core laboratory
- 1986: Completed its first multicenter trial (TAMI-1)
- 1993: Completed its first international trial (GUSTO-I), the largest comparative thrombolytic trial in history at the time
Since its formal creation in 1996, DCRI faculty and staff have made immense contributions to advancing clinical research and care. Search our publications database or view select trials and registries. Along the way, we have celebrated significant milestones in our history, including:
2000
- Became a founding member of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC)
2007
- Duke University and the FDA co-founded the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), a public-private partnership designed to create new solutions for better, more efficient clinical trials; DCRI serves as the host of CTTI
2010
- Received a $95 million NIH grant over 7 years for the Pediatric Trials Network (PTN); grant was renewed in 2018; to date, the PTN has contributed to label changes for 15 drugs
2011
- Announced ARISTOTLE results—Apixaban safer and more effective than warfarin—later, this study was named to Drazen’s Dozen as one of 12 studies that has most changed clinical practice since 2000
2012
- Received a $9 million grant to serve as the coordinating center for the NIH’s Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory
2013
- Received a $62 million grant to form a national leadership group focused on antibacterial resistance (ARLG)
2015
- Robert Califf, MD, DCRI’s founding director, nominated to be FDA commissioner
- Was awarded the first PCORnet demonstration study, ADAPTABLE, which aims to determine the best aspirin dose to protect patients with heart disease
2016
- Was named coordinating center as part of a $157 million federal initiative aimed at studying how environmental factors affect childhood health (ECHO)
2017
- Launched the Project Baseline study, a partnership between DCRI, Stanford Medicine and Verily Life Sciences, in order to expand the understanding of the journey from health to disease in 10,000 participants
2020
- Received a $50 million PCORI grant for the Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes (HERO) research program and received a $80 million NIH grant for RADx-UP, both research programs that will study the prevention and testing of COVID-19, respectively; DCRI is Duke University’s top awardee for federal COVID-19 research funding
- FDA announced its first-ever approval for a video game that can be marketed and prescribed as a therapeutic; the DCRI conducted the two randomized clinical trials to evaluate the treatment
- Launched DCRI’s first direct-to-family, decentralized clinical trial, iPERSONAL
Celebrating 25 Years of Improving Health Around the World
Formally founded in 1996, the DCRI followed in the footsteps of Duke pioneers who envisioned novel ways to learn about health and health care. An enduring spirit of innovation has enabled the institute to affect change in most every aspect of clinical research and realize our mission to improve health around the world.
DCRI's Executive Directors
Since DCRI’s inception, preeminent Duke University School of Medicine faculty members have served as our executive directors, guiding the Institute’s leadership in the clinical research field:
Robert Califf, MD
DCRI Executive Director
1996-2006
Robert Harrington, MD
DCRI Executive Director
2006-2012
Eric Peterson, MD, MPH
DCRI Executive Director
2012-2018
Lesley Curtis, PhD
DCRI Interim Executive Director
2018-2020
Adrian Hernandez, MD, MHS
DCRI Executive Director
2020-Present
Explore the rest of DCRI’s leadership team or learn more about our current faculty.
“It seems like only yesterday that we were first imagining what could be accomplished if we organized an entity … that was purposefully designed to enable faculty in leading and conducting multisite clinical research in concert with remarkably creative staff professionals."
– Rob Califf, MD
DCRI's founding Executive Director