Building clinical research infrastructure in a dermatology department

Summary: Abstract Body: A strong clinical research infrastructure in a dermatology department can advance research goals of faculty investigators, assist trainees in career development, increase departmental research productivity, increase external collaborations, and increase external recognition. We aim to build out specialty clinic observational cohort databases from specialty care clinics in our dermatology department to facilitate clinical investigation. We built out at least one retrospective cohort database to capture the patient panel for each one of 13 specialty clinics. Clinics could have more than one planned cohort study. For each database, we obtained institutional review board (IRB) approval for a minimal risk study, collected data through chart review, and initiated a clinical research work product as either a presentation or publication. This effort was carried out between November 1, 2023 through January 10, 2025 and remains ongoing. Twelve protocols for the specialty clinics were submitted (80.0% n=12/15) and ten were approved as minimal risk studies by our IRB (83.3%, n=10/12). Three (30%, n=3/10) have retrospective databases built out. From these 3 databases alone, there is 1 manuscript in press, 1 manuscript in revision, 3 manuscripts submitted, 2 manuscripts drafted, and 5 national abstracts presented. Seven (70%, n=7/10) databases are still being built and will likely have a similar research output. A projected clinical research output based on these initial results could assume optimally two databases per specialty clinic and three clinical queries per database, resulting in 78 manuscripts within a two year timeline of database development. Strategic alignment between specialty clinic patient panels and clinical research infrastructure can help hasten project initiation for trainees, support research and promotional goals of faculty, and increase research output for an academic medical center. Increased grant and resource support for such an effort can offer educational value, research productivity, and external recognition for an academic dermatology department. Payal C. Shah¹, Nardin Awad¹, Dylan Parker¹, Michael S. Chapman¹ 1. Dermatology, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, United States. Clinical Research: Epidemiology and Observational Research