Affiliations and Operational Support

Affiliations & Operational Support

Mercy Aligns with Epic to Expand the Capabilities of the Epic Research Module 

The Mercy Epic team continues to upgrade the user experience and increase billing compliance for research users with the Epic Research Module. The EPIC 2018 upgrade brought new functionality and innovation, such as MyMercy being integrated into the Epic Research module. This integration provided another avenue for Mercy Research to recruit research subjects for possible participation in research studies. Patients can now search MyMercy for areas of research interest and indicate if they are interested in being contacted for possible inclusion. The upgrade also added a feature to distinguish between Client Records and Research Studies Records in Epic. This aids in increased billing compliance.

The Mercy Epic team in partnership with Mercy Research will determine goals and initiatives with the highest level of innovation and reliability in mind. This includes software updates of the Epic Research Module and the overall Epic Module, which are planned quarterly for the calendar year 2019.

Mercy’s Epic team, along with Mercy Research, is dedicated to implementing the latest upgrades while remaining current in all areas. Continuous strides are made to continue to secure patient data, ensure patient safety, maintain research billing compliance and enhance the Epic Module with new functionality for overall better user experience from a clinical, billing and reporting standpoint. Mercy Research and the Mercy Epic team will continue to achieve their goal of using Epic and its functionality to better serve our patients, providers and staff.

Mercy Aligns with Guardian Research Network to Support Oncology Research

Guardian Research Network (GRN) harnesses the power of big data to aggregate hundreds of thousands of cancer patients’ electronic medical records from multiple integrated community health systems into a single, searchable database, resulting in actionable data. GRN’s objectives include:

• Identifying the right patients at the right time for clinical trials placed at GRN member sites while shortening enrollment timelines
• Relieving GRN members’ clinical trial office burdens by centralizing some study startup activities
• Collaborating with the industry on its development activities through robust data analytics, which facilitates better study design

The collaboration between GRN and Mercy Research has resulted in significant added value including:

• 8 studies opened to date with over 600 patients enrolled
• 8 studies opened in up to 5 locations per study
• 81 patients matched to GRN therapeutic protocols and referred by GRN for PI consideration as research subjects
• A collaborative effort with Mercy to develop GRN Discovery™, a self-service chart query tool Mercy staff can use to identify patients for non-GRN trials

Mercy Aligns with Western IRB, Adds Efficiencies to Clinical Research 

Western IRB (WIRB) continues to operate as the preferred IRB for industry-sponsored clinical research studies conducted at Mercy Research. Recognized as the gold standard of ethical and regulatory review, WIRB pioneered the concept of independent oversight in 1968, and partners with more than 2,800 institutions, including 215 universities and academic medical centers, as well as many leading hospitals and health care systems in North America.

With 11 AAHRPP-accredited review panels that each meet twice weekly, WIRB has assisted in reducing IRB review turnaround time, enabling investigators to begin enrolling participants in clinical research studies more quickly. As of May 2019, WIRB has acted as the IRB of record for Mercy in the review of approximately 250 industry-sponsored studies.

The relationship with WIRB and its parent company WIRB-Copernicus Group (WCG) affords Mercy a variety of benefits, including: