DCRI Think Tanks demonstrate what is possible when you bring smart people together to tackle the biggest challenges in clinical research. From developing innovative approaches to addressing diversity and inclusion to leveraging artificial intelligence, these meetings are about creating pathways to useful, focused discussions across the healthcare continuum and then moving consensus to action.
Our mission: Address the most critical gaps in clinical research by convening leaders across the healthcare industry to map the way forward in designing, conducting, and implementing high-quality, evidence-based research.
Innovators Wanted
Have an idea to streamline or improve clinical trials? The DCRI Think Tanks program wants to hear from you. Selected submissions will be invited to a virtual session with pharmaceutical leadership to present and discuss their ideas. Submissions are due June 23, 2025.
Expert Meetings & Resulting Insights
For over 30 years, DCRI Think Tanks have convened leaders across the healthcare industry to map the way forward in designing, conducting, and implementing high-quality, evidence-based research. Below, learn about our most recent meetings and read insights from leading experts, or visit our archive of meetings and publications.
The First and Last Mile of Primary Care
An April 2025 expert panel explored how to transform primary care practices into platforms for clinical research, examining infrastructure needs, innovative trial designs, and collaborative funding models that could unlock the untapped potential of America's healthcare frontline.
The State of Clinical Research and Healthcare
On July 31, 2024, an expert panel led a DCRI think tank session around recent government initiatives, emerging evidence generation and implementation strategies, and potential changes to payment structures that affect clinical research and care delivery.
Anti-Obesity Pharmacotherapy
The October 2024 DCRI Think Tanks meeting on “Anti-Obesity Pharmacotherapy: An Urgent Need for Guidance, Access, and Equity” aimed to tackle this chronic condition head-on by bringing together partners from academia, government, industry, and patient/community organizations.
Recent DCRI Think Tanks
Primary care is the cornerstone of a healthcare system, providing comprehensive and continuous care to patients. It plays a crucial role in managing chronic health conditions, promoting preventive care, and ensuring timely access to medical services. However, due to the volume and breadth of patient care, and limited resources, primary care providers often face significant challenges in integrating clinical research and rapidly implementing research findings into practice.
Meeting attendees discussed these challenges and identified innovative strategies to move the needle on embedding clinical research into primary care practice. Key questions they considered included:
- How is primary care evolving, and where are there opportunities to better integrate clinical research? How do primary care research settings differ from other clinical research sites?
- How can we engage and support primary care clinicians to increase their participation in clinical research? How can we leverage existing primary care research networks?
- What types of clinical trials or other clinical research are most suitable for primary care settings? How do we design trials to fit into primary care settings?
- What role can technology play in supporting primary care clinicians to participate in clinical trials?
- What are the potential use cases of trials in primary care settings that bring value to patients, primary care clinicians and their health systems, and industry partners?
A meeting brief is in progress.
Directors: Rowena Dolor, MD, MHS, DCRI; Russel Rothman, MD, MPP, Vanderbilt; Meeting Fellow: Ryan M. Kane, MD, MPH, Duke University
Given the rapid advancements in science, the pressing health needs, and the drive for greater efficiency, how can we develop platform trials that lead to regulatory-grade analysis in support of registration? Biotechnologies that have the capacity to and are tested for the treatment of multiple diseases will continue to evolve. A single medical product could be crucial for various overlapping populations, which traditionally would have been developed and implemented sequentially. This DCRI Think Tank explored platform trial designs that could span different therapeutic areas and/or leverage precision medicine for simultaneous clinical investigations that lead to regulatory-enabling endpoints to inform registration with regulatory bodies.
Meeting attendees discussed the following themes and opportunities for action:
- In recent years, there has been an explosion in adaptive platform trials, especially for COVID treatments. These trial designs are generally not leveraged for registrational trials – how do we make use more frequent for pivotal trials?
- What are the opportunities and challenges to address for therapies that could be developed for registration using a platform model?
- What are the considerations for platform approaches or scenarios where this would be advantageous for multiple indications, different populations, and at different stages of development?
- What is the value proposition for advancing therapeutics across multiple indications regarding risks, rewards, and cost?
- What are the misaligned incentives across stakeholders that prevent the use of platform trials?
- What does sponsorship look like?
- What are the logistical barriers and challenges with data management?
- What solutions have been utilized to address the logistical barriers in implementing platform designs?
- How can platform designs accelerate early clinical development and support decisions for late-stage development?
Directors: Kanecia Zimmerman, MD, PhD, MPH, DCRI, and Derek Angus, MD, MPH, UPitt; Meeting Fellow: Benjamin Catanese, MD, Duke University
DCRI Think Tanks brought together leaders from academic, regulatory, payor, policy, industry, and patient stakeholder groups to tackle the major issues in anti-obesity medication development. Discussions delved into the transformational change in the landscape of anti-obesity pharmacotherapy, health targets for obesity treatment, regulatory policies, clinical trial design, health system and payor implications, and a thoughtful examination of ethics and equity in obesity research and care. The obesity use case is a framework for the clinical research ecosystem to adapt to groundbreaking innovations with widespread uptake to optimize overall health.
Meeting attendees discussed the following themes and opportunities for action:
- What therapeutic targets to optimize overall health, beyond weight reduction alone, should we aim for in patients with obesity?
- How can guidance from regulatory authorities be updated to facilitate efficient and equitable research in the obesity therapeutic space? How will this impact clinical/registration trial design?
- How can we address access issues related to cost, coverage, and drug shortages?
Directors: Neha Pagidipati, MD, MPH, DCRI, and Ania Jastreboff, MD, PhD, Yale University; Meeting Fellow: Pishoy Gouda, MB, BCH, BAO, MSC
Recent Think Tank Publications
Leaders and Partners
The DCRI Think Tanks Advisory Board
Advisory board partnerships with industry leaders help the DCRI Think Tanks program address the right topics, at the right time, with the right people. Our partners provide crucial insight and connections that go beyond DCRI's clinical and operational expertise. From guidance on attendees, framing discussion topics, and contributions to resulting publications, our advisory board members are players in the lifecycle of every event.
