It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter summarizing the features and highlights of this Quarterly newsletter. For two years, this honor fell to Rachel Minnick, our beloved colleague who passed away in April.
Rachel was a major contributor to CISCRP’s growth and success during her brief time heading up our marketing and outreach efforts as a senior member of the team. She always brought clear mindedness; a positive outlook; passion for our mission and compassion for the patient community; a sense of humor; and constant support and encouragement for staff and colleagues. It was a great privilege for all of us to work and to collaborate with Rachel.
Rachel’s legacy includes our National Media Outreach program, the Ideathon, and our many multi-cultural and multi-lingual educational pamphlets available to patients and their families available online and via health care provider and investigative site waiting rooms and offices. Having been a study volunteer in clinical trials herself, Rachel was the embodiment of a Medical Hero. In honor of her memory, we’re profiling Rachel in this newsletter’s ‘Spotlight’ feature.
This newsletter also provides a feature on our recent AWARE Los Angeles program and on an interactive and informative redesigned recreational vehicle that, in the weeks leading up to the AWARE event, traveled to neighborhoods throughout the city to educate the public about clinical research. In addition to CISCRP news briefs and updates, we also highlight two growing service areas: (1) our plain language clinical trial results summary program; and (2) our patient advisory board and patient journey services, and discuss our newest educational brochure designed to assist health care providers in facilitating patient engagement.
Please visit our web site at www.ciscrp.org or call us at 617-725-2750 to learn more about any of our programs and services. And we welcome your comments and ideas for ways that we can better serve the public, patient communities and all stakeholders in the clinical research enterprise. Please email me at kengetz@ciscrp.org.
