UCLA CTSI Participant and Clinical Interactions (PCI) Program

The Participant and Clinical Interactions (PCI) Program plays a critical role in assuring that clinical research at the UCLA CTSI partner institutions—Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and UCLA—is performed safely, efficiently and reliably. The PCI offers a research-friendly environment that provides investigators and research staff with the training and support required to design and successfully complete studies capable of testing well-conceived research hypotheses. PCI certifies the competency and credentialing of research teams, holds rigorous scientific peer reviews and measures and shares elements of a study’s successes and failures.  

The Participant and Clinical Interactions Program (PCI) complements the work of the Integrating Special Populations Program, incentivizing clinical studies in special populations typically underrepresented in research, including pregnant women, infants and children, adolescents and young adults, elderly, rare orphan diseases, underserved/underrepresented minorities, rural populations, and populations with low socioeconomic status. PCI collaborates with the Community Engagement and Research Program and the Network Capacity Program to conduct Community Engagement Studios to understand community priorities for clinical research. In addition, PCI offers a Clinical and Translational Research Center WithOut Walls (CTRC-WOW) to facilitate community-based studies with mobile technologies, including wearables and virtual reality devices. In collaboration with the Regulatory Knowledge and Support Program, PCI will continue to implement and enhance processes for scientific review, ClinicalTrials.gov registration and reporting, by providing tools and education for young investigators and investigators with limited experience conducting clinical trials. Building on the infrastructure previously established by the state-funded UCLA Health Alpha Clinic, PCI has created a Phase 1 unit providing highly specialized support to stem cell and gene therapy trials.

The PCI program also mentors and oversees role-based clinical education and assists in collecting data analytics in order to assess research staff performance. PCI maintains an equitable service voucher system and pilot initiatives to streamline, speed and avoid common research roadblocks.

As part of PCI, the Clinical and Translational Research Centers (CTRCs) support and supervise human studies and clinical trials conducted at each partner institution. CTRCs also assist with training junior investigators in the conduct of translational clinical research. Additional CTRC resources and services include: private beds, procedure suites, infusion room and bay, rooms equipped for sleep studies, a spinal cord injury center, interview rooms, inpatient unit, bionutrition services, and skilled RN and medical assistant staff. 

For more information, please visit the PCI page.

Last updated
January 2, 2025