Orthopaedic Clinical Research Center

The Orthopaedic Clinical Research Center (OCRC) was established to centralize research activities, elevate the quality and efficiency of research studies, and provide education and enrichment opportunities for Department of Orthopaedic Surgery faculty, research staff, and trainees.

We actively conduct innovative research across all of our orthopaedic subspecialties to further insights into the development, progression, and outcomes of musculoskeletal disease and injury. Ultimately, these clinical research findings inform our approach to optimize patient treatment.

Core Services Provided by the Center

Administrative Core

Our administrative core oversees the management of the OCRC and specifically aids with study coordination and implementation.

• Guidance is available to help address logistical issues with study implementation and multi-center study coordination.
• Support is provided to identify appropriate staff to assist with clinical research studies (including new hires when needed).
• Ethical review of research protocols by experienced research coordinators is provided prior to submission to the Washington University institutional review board.

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Core

Our epidemiology and biostatistics core provides an array of services related to study design, data collection, and statistical analyses.  

• Epidemiology consultations are available to assist with developing methodologic approaches that appropriately align with research questions. This includes aiding with decisions about sample selection, measurement methods, and statistical plans.  
• Electronic data collection for new, prospective clinical research studies will be facilitated through the use of the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) application. Our REDCap superuser is available to help with the development of new data collection instruments.   
• Biostatistics support is available to conduct sample size/power calculations to guide study planning, and to implement statistical analyses.

Grants and Education Core

Our grants and education core offers investigators the opportunity to improve their grantsmanship and clinical research expertise.

• Prior to submission, grant applications can be reviewed by experienced researchers.  Investigators will gain feedback on clearly communicating the significance of their proposal, outlining specific research aims and corresponding hypotheses, and developing a detailed study approach.  
• Our departmental grants library allows investigators to learn from past successful research proposals.
  • Faculty Research Grant Database
  • Resident Research Grant Database
• Educational seminars will be organized for faculty and research personnel to improve skills relevant to clinical research and to learn about cutting-edge research.

OCRC Multicenter Research Studies

Washington University Orthopaedic Clinical Research Center contributes to many multicenter clinical research studies across the country. Current studies we are contributing to include:

• ANCHOR: Academic Network of Conservational Hip Outcomes Research
• ARC: Operative versus Non-Operative Treatment for Atraumatic Rotator Cuff Tears: A mulicenter Randomized Controlled Pragmatic Trial
• Children’s Spine Foundation/Children’s Spine Study Group
• CIREN: Medical and Engineering Center Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network
• CoULD Registry
• CVBT: Bracing vs. Casting in the Treatment of Idiopathic Early-Onset Scoliosis
• Growing Spine Foundation/Growing Spine Study Group
• INFUSE Bone Graft in the treatment of Tibial Pseudarthrosis in Neurofibromatosis
• MARS: (Multi-center ACL Revision Study) 1.0/2.0
• MeTeOR: Partial Meniscectomy vs. Nonoperative Management in Meniscal Tear with OA: An RCT
  
• MOON Shoulder: Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network
  
• MOON Knee: Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network
• MOON MRI: Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network
• Neuraptive: A Phase 2a, Multicenter, Randomized Patient and Evaluator Blinded, Controlled Study Evaluatin the Safety and Efficacy of NTX-001 Compared to Standard of Care in the Treatment of Acute Single Transected Peripheral Nerve Injury Occuring below the Distal Border of the Brachial Plexus Requiring Surgical Repair
• PLANET: Establishing the Validity, Responsiveness, Appropriateness of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Adult Traumatic Brachial Plexus Injury 1.0/2.0
• POTENT: Infection Prevention and Antimicrobial Stewardship: Minding the Gaps: The Iowa Prevention Eipcenter
• RESTORE: Quantative Ambulatory Assessment and Prognosis of the Impact of Severe Upper Limb Injuries on Real-World Behavior
• ROCK: Research in OsteoChondritis of the Knee