Satellite Facility at the Veterans Administration Hospital
There are investigators in the Department of Medicine and Psychiatry who have study subjects unsuitable for evaluation on the GCRC unit at the Children's Hospital because of safety issues. A satellite to the GCRC was developed at the Veterans Administration Hospital on the University of Cincinnati campus designed to study subjects who could not be studied at the Children's Hospital because of medical or psychiatric instability which required back-up medical expertise that exceeded what was available at the Children's Hospital. We emphasize that this unit does not replace the existing GCRC for investigators in departments other than pediatrics, it offers opportunities for studies that could not be carried out at the Children's Hospital site.
The VA GCRC satellite consistes of 3,000 square feet of dedicated research space located on the fourth floor of the VA Medical Center. The unit is adjacent to an outpatient clinic and one floor below the inpatient service of the Cincinnati VA Hospital. Included in the VA satellite are two inpatient rooms with cardiac monitoring capabilities. In addition, these rooms are fitted with the necessary equipment for performing sleep studies. There is a fully equipped cardio-pulmonary physiology laboratory with a C-arm and related equipment to support procedures such as cardiac catheterization and bronchoscopy. There is a BioZ noninvasive hemodynamic monitor, an exercise unit with a treadmill and stationary bike, and a metabolic cart for measurement of energy expenditure. The unit has four outpatient exam rooms (458, 458a, 458b, 458c), three procedure rooms (A457B, D, and E) an investigational pharmacy, a phlebotomy and sample processing laboratory with refrigerated centrifuge, and a nurses station. The satellite unit has additional space for storage, including –70ºC and –20ºC freezers, in an adjacent building at the VAMC.
The satellite has a Scientific Advisory Committee that provides scientific review and an IRB.
Information about the VA satellite is available at their website: http://www.cvaresearch.com/gcrc/gcrc.html
Investigators interested in using this facility may contact the administrator for the facility, Amelia T. Nasrallah, amelia.nasrallah@uc.edu, for more information.
