Utilization of a structured research site mentorship model to facilitate site performance in a clinical research network

Abstract

Background

Research site mentorship has a positive impact on study enrollment. The VA Cooperative Studies Program's (CSP) Network of Dedicated Enrollment Sites (NODES) utilized an existing site mentorship model to onboard 13 new expansion sites. We describe the successes, challenges, and lessons learned during the development and implementation of this model in this paper.

Methods

NODES established a “Site Mentorship/Expansion Workgroup (SWG)” in October 2020 to plan and guide the consortium on providing mentorship and services to other clinical research networks, non-Node CSP study sites, and NODES expansion sites. In 2021, the SWG developed a 12-month implementation plan to onboard 13 new sites by pairing original Node (mentor) sites with expansion Node (mentee) sites. Mentors offered prompt guidance and solutions to mentees on site-level challenges by working with them closely. Implementation of the plan occurred from February 2022 through September 2023.

Results

Data from the implementation of this mentorship plan demonstrated a 32.7 % increase (from 54.8 % in 2022 to 87.5 % in 2023) in the expansion sites’ achievement of their Objectives & Key Results (OKRs). From October 2020–September 2021, prior to mentorship assignments, the original sites (mentors) achieved an average of 88 % of their OKRs and attained an average of 86.7 % and 80.9 % of those OKRs in October–September of 2022 and 2023 respectively during the mentorship implementation phase.

Conclusions

The results demonstrate that developing and implementing a research site mentorship model to facilitate onboarding and performance of research sites into an established network was feasible and contributed to the success of those sites.