Best Practices

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, located in Nashville, Tenn., is an academic medical center that includes the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.

New and better treatments for cancer will be discovered only through the continued support of patients who participate in clinical trials, so we want to be sure that we focus on education.  A clinical trial is a research study to evaluate a new drug or treatment.  Carefully conducted clinical trials are the fastest and safest way to find treatments that work in people and ways to improve health.  All of today's standard cancer treatments were first shown to be effective in clinical trials.

In addition to a robust section about cancer clinical trials on our Cancer Center Web site, general education about the importance of cancer clinical trials as an option is communicated to our faculty and staff via numerous ways:

• on digital screens throughout the center,
• house-wide emails,
• articles in our weekly in-house newspaper,
• on-hold telephone messaging,
• brochures and posters,
• “Ask about Clinical Trials” lab-coat buttons 

By encouraging everyone to look at the pros and cons of clinical trials along with other treatment choices, we are encouraging them to take an active role in a decision that affects their lives.  And as a Gold Standard employer, we are proud to do all that we can to spread the word about the value of considering participating in a trial.