Information for Investigators and Sponsors

The Veterinary Clinical Trial support group is directed by Professor Levent Dirikolu and managed by Catherine Takawira. Clinical trials are conducted by teams of investigators within the LSU Vet Med Hospital in collaboration with the Center of Clinical Innovation. The hospital has a small and large animal hospital, as well as an ambulatory large animal service, a food animal service, and an outreach vehicle that provides well-checks and spay/neuter services for underserved communities.

The hospital has the most board certified specialists under one roof in Louisiana, with experts in a variety of disciplines. We also offer advanced diagnostic imaging, clinical and diagnostic pathology services, and 24-hour emergency service and critical care. The clinical disciplines have access to state-of-the-art equipment for diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases and injuries.

In preparation for clinical trial, the Centre of Clinical Innovation Team can help you at various stages:

  • Experimental design including statistics.
  • Identification of Clinical Collaborator: If you do not have hospital privileges, we can help you with identifying potential collaborators with hospital privileges.
  • Budget: The clinical trials manager and director can assist you with preparing a budget for your study.
  • VCSC and IACUC application: The CCI team may assist you with parts of the VCSC and IACUC application.
  • Patient recruiting: Assistance will be available for your patient recruitment needs.
  • Study execution: We can provide technical support for your study including data collection, analysis, and report preparation.

For all other questions, please contact the CCI at ldirikolu@lsu.edu  or CTakawira@lsu.edu.