Scientific & Clinical Research

The Essentia Institute of Rural Health (EIRH) research efforts explore ways to make health care better for patients, bring innovation to medicine, and advance treatments. We encourage and support research geared toward developing new and improved medications, therapies, devices, and delivery methods.

Types of EIRH Research

Scientific and clinical research at EIRH solves problems or answers questions. Researchers conduct a wide range of studies with a focus on these key areas:

• Clinical and translational research in cancer, primary care, trauma, and heart and vascular conditions
• Health care delivery, organization, quality, safety, and cost
• Health care evaluation and strategies for better patient outcomes
• Health services research applied to rural populations
• Illness prevention, treatment, and management

Get Involved in Research at EIRH

If you’re a researcher interested in collaborating with EIRH, you’ll need to review the research processes and tools at EIRH to start a research project.

As your project progresses, EIRH supplies templates and resources to guide and train you. Compliance assistance helps you conduct research at EIRH.

Sponsored Programs Administration will support your industry sponsored clinical trials, federal and foundation grants and contracts.

Student Research

If you’re a student, you’ll want review the student research projects guidelines to understand your eligibility to conduct a research or quality improvement project at EIRH.

Research Management

EIRH conducts research according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines and good clinical practices, and meets rigorous safety standards.

Conflict of Interest

To ensure bias-free scientific and clinical research, all professionals who are involved in clinical research trials and federally funded projects through EIRH must disclose their financial interests to determine if a conflict exists.

Administrative & Financial Oversight

EIRH provides administrative, financial, scientific, ethical, and clinical oversight for research including:

• Regulatory document completion
• Budget and contract negotiation
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) application and submission

Research Review

Federalwide Assurance (FWA) with the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) guides Essentia Health to protect the rights and welfare of human research participants.

Essentia IRB

The Essentia IRB examines each potential research study and evaluates all components to ensure the protection of human subjects. The IRB safeguards the rights and welfare of anyone participating in research projects by making sure each study is ethically sound.