CLINICAL RESOURCES CORE: PERSONNEL

Hal Scofield, MD

Clinical Resources Core Director

Professor of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Member, Arthritis and Clinical Immunology, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

Associate Chief of Staff for Research, OKC Veterans Affairs Medical Center

 

Dr. Scofield is an accomplished physician scientist with >250 publications and continuous federal (NIH/VA) grant support since 1991. He served as an IRB chair for 8 years, uniquely positioning him to assist with regulatory questions. His research focuses on understanding gender bias in autoimmunity and pathogenic mechanisms of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases. He is a board-certified adult endocrinologist who sees patients at least weekly.

 

Matlock Jeffries, MD

Associate Director, OUHSC Clinical Service Unit

Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

 

Dr. Jeffries is an adult Rheumatologist whose research focuses on epigenetic regulation in accelerated osteoarthritis. He is already serving as a mentor for several individuals and has been a driving force in the development and growth of the osteoarthritis registry and repository. He has significant experience as a prior OSCTR Scholar and understands the needs of junior investigators.

 

Eliza Chakravarty, MD, MS

Associate Director, OMRF Clinical Service Unit

Associate Member, Arthritis and Clinical Immunology, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

 

Dr. Chakravarty is a practicing clinician and a trained epidemiologist. As Director of the OMRF Clinical Service Unit, she has led efforts that increased enrollment and standardized clinical disease activity data capture. She has also helped build the databases that house extensive longitudinal patient information for autoimmune disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and pediatric obesity cohorts. Her research focuses on improving pregnancy outcomes in autoimmune disease patients and other high-risk pregnancies.

 

Joel Guthridge, PhD

Associate Director, Registry and Repository Unit

Associate Member, Arthritis and Clinical Immunology, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

 

Dr. Guthridge is Director of the CAP-certified OMRF Biorepository, OMRF Translational Informatics, and the OMRF Human Phenotyping Core. Through these roles, he has been instrumental in strategic planning and development of the physical infrastructure, supporting informatics, and staff development required for high value registries, repositories, and collections for clinical and translational research. He oversees all collections, sample processing, and associated clinical/experimental data for the Clinical Resources Core Registry and Repository Unit.

 

Katlyn Beecken

Clinical Research Coordinator

Katlyn Beecken has over 9 years of experience in clinical research as a Clinical Research Coordinator and in managing clinical research projects. She started as a coordinator in the private industry for pharmaceutical sponsored research before transitioning into the academic setting, where she supports a blend of investigator initiated research, grant funded research, and pharmaceutical research. In her present role as Senior Clinical Research Coordinator at the Oklahoma Clinical Translational Science Institute, Katlyn leads a team of research coordinators and nurses to assist investigators and junior investigators in their research. She is the primary contact for investigators interested in utilizing the OSCTR's OU-based and mobile clinical resources. Katlyn has been involved in all stages of the research cycle including protocol and document creation, IRB submissions, patient recruitment and enrollment, conducting study visits, and data management.

 

Research Support Staff

Our support staff includes an experienced lead research nurse, two experienced clinical coordinators, and a regulatory expert. These individuals split their time on-site and traveling to other OSCTR locations for training of facility personnel, setting up clinical research infrastructure, recruiting for studies, or educating OSCTR partners about the services provided in the CR Core. They are assisted by Research Navigators and Research Navigator Liaisons for regulatory compliance issues. Another staff member with medical assistant training and experience assists with patient scheduling, check-in, medication reviews, chart pulls and obtaining outside medical information.