Insights into a new multi-year grant cycle funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and National Cancer Institute will be among the highlights of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network Coordinators Track Agenda on Feb. 12 at the 2025 Tandem Meetings | Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT® and CIBMTR®.

“The BMT CTN is funded on a 7-year grant cycle, and that just renewed for its fifth grant cycle,” said Mykala Heuer, BSN, RN, BMT CTN clinical program manager. “Something we’re doing differently this year compared to past years is we’re kicking off with a session to help our coordinators understand what it means to be entering a new grant cycle. We’re hoping to give our coordinators a little insight into what they can expect, what studies the network may want to pursue with the new grant cycle, how a study starts as an idea and then turns into a BMT CTN study.”

The session The New Grant Cycle & How BMT CTN Studies Are Created will begin at 8:10 a.m. on Feb. 12.

The BMT CTN Coordinators Track sessions also include discussions on operations of the BMT CTN, empowering coordinators, differences in the structure of trial sites, changes in study endpoints, and more.

“Our morning sessions are geared toward how the BMT CTN operates — the new grant cycle and what that means, lessons learned, and what kinds of metrics we look at,” Heuer said. “Then from 10:30 a.m. on, the program is geared toward topics that are of high interest to our coordinators, so we encourage more discussion and interaction among the coordinators.”

Her advice to attendees is to listen to as many presentations as they can, as they all tend to blend together and it is a wonderful learning opportunity.

“We try our best to capture themes in the session titles, but that can be difficult. I encourage attendees, if something intrigues them in the title, check it out,” Heuer said. “We try to have a mix of low-level discussions that are easier to understand and highly scientific discussions so we can capture a lot of attendees with different backgrounds.”

Multiple sessions address the people aspect of clinical trials, including Addressing Barriers to Accessing Clinical Trials at 1:30 p.m. and Patients and Caregivers at 1:50 p.m.

“Our patients and caregivers have done a lot of great work within our network, and it’s always so fun to hear from them,” Heuer said. “Our network has also taken a lot of initiatives to address all patients being able to gain access to clinical trials.”

The session on identifying and overcoming barriers to clinical trial access will include a presentation on a BMT CTN project that utilizes patient financial navigators.

“It’s not protocol, but it’s a project that we have ongoing to help patients gain access to financial resources if they were screened for one of our trials,” Heuer said. “I think that will be really interesting to hear, and a project like that doesn’t get off the ground unless you talk about it.”

At 10:45 a.m., there will be a session on Mental Health Tips for Research Coordinators, which includes information about initiatives underway at Washington University in St. Louis.

“I think coordinators are going to be very intrigued about this one,” Heuer said. “It’s about empowering all coordinators to stay mentally healthy and advising them on what they can do to engage in their education and training, so their job role is not so overwhelming. And maybe we can help them with strategies to navigate tough parts about this role, because that can be taxing on our research coordinators.”

Attendees also will have the opportunity to share their own experiences at 11:15 a.m. during Learning about BMT CTN Sites: Comparing Different Site Structures and Processes.

“It will be an open discussion among all the coordinators in the room about what each site does differently in a lot of different aspects,” Heuer said. “We’re going to have all these coordinators come together and identify some of the pain points they’ve experienced. Maybe they struggle with staff turnover, and they can learn what other sites try to do to mitigate that turnover or what they do to help those who are going to cover for the people that they lose.”

Featured speakers will provide background from their own sites, but for the majority of the session, they will moderate discussion among attendees.

“Coordinators will share tips and tricks their sites have learned, along with furthering the understanding of what all these coordinators can do to help make sure their site is functioning to the best of its ability and being efficient,” Heuer said. “I think people are going to take away a lot from those discussions because they’re learning from their peers. They’re not just listening to somebody else give a presentation.”

BMT CTN Coordinators Track Agenda

The most up-to-date BMT CTN Coordinators Track agenda and the full 2025 Tandem Meetings program are available on the online meeting platform. All BMT CTN Coordinators Track sessions take place in Room 316 ABC of the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, unless noted otherwise.

Wednesday, Feb. 12

• 8-8:10 a.m. – Introductions
• 8:10-8:35 a.m. – BMT CTN & the New Grant Cycle
• 8:35-8:55 a.m. – Relapse Mitigation: How Study Endpoints Have Changed
• 8:55-9:15 a.m. – BMT CTN Non-Malignant Biorepository
• 9:15-9:30 a.m. – BMT CTN Metrics for Site Performance
• 9:30-10 a.m. – Closeout Visits: Let Us Help You Be Prepared
• 10:30-10:45 a.m. – BMT CTN Coordinator Awards
• 10:45-11:15 a.m. – Mental Health Tips for Research Coordinators
• 11:15 a.m.-noon – Learning about BMT CTN Sites: Comparing Different Site Structures and Processes
• 1-1:30 p.m. – Comparing Cellular Therapy and Gene Therapy to Hematopoietic Transplants
• 1:30-1:50 p.m. – Addressing Barriers to Accessing Clinical Trials
• 1:50-2:50 p.m. – Patients and Caregivers
• 2:50-3 p.m. – Closing Remarks