ADCS Administrative Core

The ADCS Administrative Core provides administrative, fiscal, regulatory and recruitment/retention support for the organization as a whole. The Administrative Core plans and coordinates ADCS Steering Committee and Oversight group meetings, makes decisions involving policy, priority and the flow of work, and allocation of resources and personnel. Further, it develops or oversees the development of appropriate policies, procedures and the manual of standard operating procedures for the ADCS as a whole.

The Finance Unit of the Administrative Core provides fiscal control for the operations of the ADCS, generates payments to participating research sites for work completed, and establishes and maintains contracts with vendors and research sites. Regulatory Affairs provides general regulatory supervision for the clinical trials undertaken by the ADCS. Regulatory files are maintained at the Coordinating Center and include current IRB approval and 1572 documents for each project in which a research site is participating. Consent forms for each ADCS protocol are developed by this unit in collaboration with the Project Director and are provided to participating research sites.

Support is provided to ADCS research sites regarding recruitment and retention of study subjects. For each clinical trial, descriptions of the trial are developed and distributed to clinical trial web sites and organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Association for inclusion in their databases of current research and flyers or brochures are developed to assist the sites with local recruitment. When recruitment goals are large and/or complex, a formal national recruitment plan is developed and implemented with the assistance of a firm that specializes in public relations and recruitment.