Each year the Advocate Center for Pediatric Research organizes the Achieving Excellence in Clinical Research conference for individuals interested in important topics in clinical research.  In 2011, the 8th annual Achieving Excellence in Clinical Research conference was held on Thursday, September 22nd at McDonald's Hamburger University in Oak Brook, Illinois.  This year’s conference participants represented 36 different organizations (including clinical sites, academia, and industry) and traveled from 5 different states.

The plenary sessions featured Vivian Pinn, MD (NIH) who talked about "Advances in Women’s Health: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going"; Toby Schonfeld, PhD (Emory University) who discussed "The Next Imperative: Inclusion of Pregnant Women in Clinical Research"; and R. Alta Charo, JD (University of Wisconsin- Madison) who challenged participants to think about "The Phantom Fetus: The Politics of a Duty to Future Children". The morning concluded with a lively panel discussion where participants had the opportunity to ask the experts about these and other topics.

After lunch, conference participants had the opportunity to hear an array of thought-provoking presentations by these and other speakers that addressed topics such as using computer technology in practice-based intervention research, new rules for conflicts of interest, ethical considerations in internet-based research, beginning and advanced statistics, requiring contraception in clinical research, and more. The conference was very well received and we are already planning the 2012 conference!

For more detailed information on the 2011 conference, please view our conference brochure.