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Virginia Clinical Trials and Research
VCCRN is a collective of Virginia’s top healthcare systems, academic institutions, and life science organizations.
In 2019, the Commonwealth of Virginia formed the Virginia Coordinated Clinical Research Network (VCCRN)—a collective of leading healthcare facilities, academic institutions, and health and life science organizations in Virginia.
In a survey of Virginia’s clinical research landscape, VCCRN found that Virginia earned respect for its high-quality health system and educational research institutions. However, limited collaboration between healthcare facilities, Virginia-based industry, and academic institutions revealed critical opportunities to make the Commonwealth more competitive in advanced clinical trials and research.
Mission
VCCRN fosters cross-organizational collaboration to accelerate the growth and impact of clinical trials and research across Virginia.
Vision
VCCRN will enhance the collective power of healthcare, higher education, and biotechnology & life sciences. Together, we can make Virginia a national leader in clinical trials and research, addressing health disparities and improving trial outcomes while generating economic growth.
By promoting agile multi-disciplinary partnerships, VCCRN seeks to:

Create a shared clinical research infrastructure
to reduce institutional silos and amplify the impact of clinical trials and research.
- Invest in training and workforce programs to grow and retain clinical research talent within Virginia
- Encourage principal investigators to work with local researchers and resources rather than going out of state.

Improve Virginia’s clinical research competitiveness
through contracting, research and trial activation time, accruals, and research quality.
- Drive funding opportunities for high-priority clinical research trials
- Drive economic growth in Virginia by establishing clinical research roots in the Commonwealth and finding opportunities to commercialize breakthrough products

Increase public awareness and trust
in the value of clinical research by prioritizing trials that matter to Virginians.
- Improve local patient recruitment for clinical trials and research
VCCRN Staff
Lara D'Antonio
Lara leads the Virginia Coordinated Clinical Research Network. In this role she coordinates clinical research collaboration opportunities between clinician investigators, academia, and research industry partners to foster development of the Virginia Coordinated Clinical Research Network. Prior to joining VHHA, Lara was the Director of Value Based Care at Patient First. She also served in several roles in advocacy, program and grants management, and business development/stakeholder engagement with the Virginia Community Healthcare Association. She holds a degree in philosophy from Sweet Briar College and a Master’s in healthcare delivery science from Eastern Virginia Medical School.
We're building a community, join us!
Together, we can build an alliance to put Virginia at the forefront
of cutting-edge healthcare research and development.

