Parkinson's and Movement
Disorders Center

Request an appointment (804) 360-4669About Our CenterVCU Health Give

Behind the scenes of discovery: PMDC’s clinical research coordinators

Here is concise, WCAG-compliant ALT text for the image: **ALT text:** A collage of six professional headshots arranged in two rows of three. Each image shows a different individual facing the camera against neutral or studio-style backgrounds, including gray and one red brick backdrop. The individuals wear business or business-casual clothing such as blazers, collared tops, and sweaters. One pers

Counterclockwise from top left: Gina Blackwell, Ananna Zaman, Madison Clemons, Kara McHaney, Jaclyn Raper and Vicente Traynham. 

 

By John Battiston 

At the VCU Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Center (PMDC), groundbreaking research does not move forward on ideas alone. It advances through the steady, detailed work of the center’s seven clinical research coordinators (CRCs) — professionals who translate scientific questions into real-world, human-centered studies. 

Together, the CRC team supports dozens of observational and interventional studies spanning Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, Huntington’s disease and dystonia, among other disorders. They serve as the connective tissue of clinical research, ensuring that participants are supported, protected and fully informed every step of the way. 

Kara McHaney’s path to becoming a CRC at the PMDC began nearly four years ago when she happened upon an opening by chance, identifying an opportunity to combine her previous medical skills and research experience. For her, the role’s multifaceted nature makes it difficult to describe it simply to family and friends. 

“We’re doing everything including acquiring regulatory approvals, finding and recruiting patients, scheduling, collecting and entering data and answering queries — all to make the research happen from a logistical standpoint,” McHaney says. “No other job encompasses doing all the different things you do as a CRC, especially somewhere with as wide-ranging a portfolio as the PMDC.” 

This work often requires coordinators to master specialized technical skills — such as performing pulmonary function tests or blood draws — that would typically be handled by different departments in a large clinical setting. “Coordinators kind of have to do everything that any study requires,” McHaney says. 

Currently, McHaney works closely with neurologist Matthew Barrett, M.D. M.Sc., on multiple research studies, including an NIH R01-funded project focused on Lewy body dementia. The study seeks to clarify how cognitive fluctuations, a hallmark symptom of the disease, differ across patient groups and how those changes appear on electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring. 

McHaney’s responsibilities on the project span nearly every phase of participation. “I’m finding the people to enroll, scheduling them, running the visits, performing the cognitive testing, scheduling MRIs and performing the EEGs as well,” she says. 

This example demonstrates a defining feature of CRC work at the PMDC: direct, sustained patient interaction. Coordinators are often the first and most consistent point of contact for research participants, many of whom are unpaid volunteers. 

“If we’re not keeping the participants happy, then they don’t always have a reason to stay in the research,” McHaney says. “We have to be very accommodating to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to help make the experience easy and enjoyable for them.” 

Further, because the work involves neurodegenerative diseases, interactions with potential participants can be heavy. McHaney facilitates sensitive screenings for anxiety and depression, ensuring specific safety protocols are triggered immediately if a participant needs urgent mental health support. 

Beyond individual studies, the strength of the PMDC’s CRC program lies in collaboration. While each of the coordinators manages different projects across multiple locations, they rely on one another daily to solve problems and share expertise. 

McHaney recalls mornings spent with fellow coordinators practicing blood draws on one another to sharpen their clinical skills before seeing patients. “Nobody knows how to do all of it,” she says, “but every issue you run into has probably happened to some other coordinator before.” 

That shared knowledge allows CRCs to grow professionally while sustaining a high level of rigor across the PMDC’s research enterprise. For McHaney, the work is demanding but highly meaningful — to herself, the PMDC and the field at large. 

“Research is the only way that medicine advances,” she says.