Clinical Trials (ECHO IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network)

Infants and children living in rural areas are less likely than those living elsewhere to have a chance to enroll in clinical research, especially clinical trials. Because of this, the ECHO Program paired with the NIH IDeA States Program to create the ECHO IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (ISPCTN). This network ensures that children in states with historically low NIH funding have access to clinical trials as part of ECHO.

The ECHO ISPCTN is made up of research sites in 18 states. The network helps address disparities in pediatric research by including children from rural or underserved populations in clinical trials, and by building pediatric research capacity in states with historically low NIH funding.

The ECHO ISPCTN aims to enhance pediatric clinical trial access at state and national levels and to help carry out well-designed clinical trials in children. The Network has the following goals:

• Provide medically underserved and rural populations access to state-of-the-art clinical trials in ECHO’s five areas of child health.
• Build the national capacity to conduct pediatric clinical trials by providing professional development, team support and infrastructure building for ECHO researchers and other research faculty outside of ECHO.

Visit the Professional Development Dashboard. Researchers do not need a login or passcode to access these courses.

Data Coordinating and Operations Center

The Data Coordinating and Operations Center (DCOC) manages the following activities for the ECHO ISPCTN:

• Data coordination
• Technical instruction
• Data standards
• Quality control and assurance
• Operational coordination for ECHO ISPCTN clinical trials

Principal Investigators: Jessica Snowden, MD (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) and Song Ounpraseuth, PhD (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences)

If you have questions about the ECHO ISPCTN, please contact askDCOC@uams.edu.

About the IDeA States Program

The Institutional Development Awards (IDeA) Program was first authorized by Congress in 1993 and is managed by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The IDeA States Program was developed to widen the distribution of NIH funding for biomedical and behavioral research. It is designed to enhance the competitiveness for research funding in states with historically low NIH funding.

See the ECHO Program staff here.