Clinical Trials

Clinical research plays a vital role in developing new drugs, new surgical procedures and devices, and new actions to advance our health. It also helps doctors identify people at risk for certain diseases, and it can also help prevent or delay certain diseases. Many of these advances happened because people like you volunteered to take part in clinical trials and other types of clinical research.

Discovery Is Our Mission

Through our three-part mission of healing, education and discovery (research), The University of Tennessee Medical Center actively participates in many types of clinical research. As the region’s academic medical center, we answer your health questions by developing, discovering and using the latest advances in medicine.

Why Participate in a Clinical Trial?

People take part in clinical research because they want to help advance new discoveries, because they are empowered by taking a more active role in their health, and because they can gain access to new medications and therapies before they are widely available. Volunteers include healthy people and people with known health problems.

Clinical Research Opportunities

As the region’s academic medical center, The University of Tennessee Medical Center is actively involved in more than 50 medical trials. We are consistently ranked among the nation’s top hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. 

Investigators conduct research through the medical center’s primary research support operation, the Office of Clinical Trials as well as the UT Graduate School of MedicineVolunteer Research Group also performs research in conjunction with physicians at the medical center. 

Some trials currently being performed include: 

  • Alzheimer’s research at The Pat Summitt Clinic 
  • Oncology trials through the Office of Clinical Trials and the Cancer Institute 
  • ALS, Migraine, Asthma and more through Volunteer Research Group 

Learn more about participating in research at the medical center: 

For more information, contact the Office of Clinical Trials at 865-305-4893.

Our Objectives

The OCT follows specific objectives as we perform our research. Our goals are to:

  • Create one unified, centralized operation for performing non-governmental trials
  • Ensure that adequate qualified leadership and staff are available and trained
  • Establish standards as specified by good laboratory practice, good clinical practice, and the rules and regulations of the Food and Drug Administration
  • Ensure compliance with these standards through both internal and external audits and rigid quality control practices
  • Attract trials that meet the market’s needs and match the needs of our physicians and patients
  • Fulfill our fiduciary responsibility by being a financially self-sustaining operation at UT Medical Center

Expanding Our Reach

The OCT was established in 2014, primarily to perform oncology trials. But we are now growing and branching out into other areas of the hospital, including:

We also anticipate studies with:

To see the entire list of clinical trials being conducted by our office, visit the Clinical Trials Directory.

Contact Us