The Research Participant Recruitment Assistance team has established an innovative AI-driven initiative to streamline patient recruitment for clinical trials. The program is now available to identify potential trial candidates by scanning the electronic health record through a large language model under a secure, HIPAA-compliant agreement. This allows researchers to efficiently find trial-eligible patients using criteria that otherwise is not easily accessible in the patient record, including pathology and radiology reports and clinical notes.  

Recruitment is often the most time-consuming aspect of clinical research. “The AI program can help us more quickly search the EHR for eligible patients, so that precious coordinator time can be focused on contacting and recruiting eligible participants, not searching the medical record,” says Ann Marie Navar, M.D., Ph.D., faculty lead of the Recruitment team.

The AI pipeline was developed by Michael Dohopolski, M.D., the newest faculty member of the Recruitment Assistance team who has also created a customizable tracking dashboard. Regular updates ensure researchers have access to the most comprehensive list of potential candidates.  

They are supported by the CTSA and do not charge investigators for their services. In addition to the AI pipeline, the Recruitment team provides additional support for research recruitment, including EHR-based patient identification, bulk MyChart messaging, and custom study recruitment tracking tools.

Interested research teams can contact the operational lead Kathleen Esselink to learn more.

The Clinical Research Budget Negotiation Working Group is available to assist study teams with quickly building and negotiating clinical research budgets to activate clinical studies at UT Southwestern.

The working group's volunteer experts will:

1. Provide resources and tools to build clinical research budgets and conduct financial feasibility analyses.
2. Advise on how to navigate budget negotiations and handle common sponsor pushbacks.
3. Provide consultation on resolving a budget negotiation impasse.
4. Consult on optimizing clinical research team’s financial and regulatory operations.
5. Offer “on-demand education” to research teams on institutional processes.

Contact Aaron Brunson, Program Manager in the Office of Clinical Research, with any questions or concerns.

UT Southwestern is executing contracts with OpenAI and Cloudforce nebulaONE to offer our faculty access to secure enterprise accounts to use artificial intelligence tools including ChatGPT and other large language models.

As part of this effort, the IR team is working to balance the exciting capabilities of AI with the security needed to protect our research and patient information. Among the many features, we hope to give UTSW researchers building agents and applications, summarizing tools for meetings, chat-like access, and large-scale data analysis with fine-tuning. Cohorts and use cases will be presented at the February Research and Academic Computing Services meeting, along with recommended pathways for the requests collected to date.

Funding, costs, performance, governance, responsible use, prioritization, migration from personal subscriptions, training, and communities of practice are just some of the additional considerations as we work with leadership on a plan for users and release dates for this year.

Connect with Brian Evans, Associate Vice President and Chief Enterprise Architect for updates.

Community Health Grant Opportunities*

The UTSW CTSA is happy to announce two grant opportunities to support research benefiting community health priorities and foster community-academic partnerships.

Applications close Feb. 28.

• Planning Grant

The aim of the Planning Grant is to support the development of new, innovative, and impactful research projects that are conducted in community-based and/or clinical settings and have the potential to lead to future community-engaged research opportunities.

Awardees will receive up to $15,000. Apply here.

• Pilot Grant

The aim of the Pilot Grant is to support research studies testing novel approaches to address health problems through community-engaged implementation.

Awardees will receive up to $30,000. Apply here.

Dean’s Scholar in Clinical Research

The Dean’s Scholars in Clinical Research program supports training for early career clinician-scientists to build successful clinical and translational research projects. Scholars will receive up to 50% salary support and up to $50,000 in annual startup funds for two years.

• Spring Application Cycle Opens March 1. Apply here.

Call for Applications: Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials: Career Development Award

The Robert A. Winn Excellence in Clinical Trials: Career Development Award for Early-Stage Investigator Physicians is now accepting applications for its fifth cohort of scholars. This national two-year program is designed to support the career development of early-stage investigators who are underrepresented in medicine or who have a commitment to increasing diversity in clinical research. The award provides $120,000/yr. over two years. Funding is meant to support the career development and protect 40% of the scholars’ time and effort for program participation.

• Application Deadline May 12. Learn more about the program, eligibility requirements, and apply here.

Annual Conflict of Interest Disclosure Period

All covered individuals (faculty, researchers, advanced practice providers, executive leadership, and certain others) are required to submit a conflict of interest (COI) statement prior to March 1. Covered individuals will receive weekly automated reminder emails, along with additional instructions, until the training and COI statement are completed.

• COI statements due March 1. Log in here.



Additional information on submitting a COI statement may be found here (VPN required). Please contact the COI Office at conflictofinterest@UTSouthwestern.edu with any questions.

Writing Accountability Group*

The Writing Accountability Workshop is designed to make scholarly writing a habit. The series includes sessions in which researchers will work on their own scholarly writing accompanied by individual and group accountability partners. Individuals are asked to bring their own scholarly writing project to work on during the sessions.

• Spring Series begins April 2. Sign up here.

Training for Aspiring Clinical Investigators*

UT Southwestern provides the opportunity to learn more about clinical and translational research study design. Clinical research trainees and staff are invited to earn a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (M.S.C.I.) or a certification in Clinical Investigation from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health (OSPH). The curriculum is designed to prepare investigators for academic or industry careers. Please share these opportunities with your trainees and staff.



• Application deadline April 30. Explore the programs.

*Sponsored by the UT Southwestern CTSA Program