Research

The Research Service includes support of the Network of Dedicated Enrollment Sites (NODES), the NCI and VA Interagency Group to Accelerate Trials Enrollment (NAVIGATE), Lung Precision Oncology Program (LPOP), Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB) for post traumatic stress syndrome, Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), and Center for VA Women’s Health Practice-based research network (PbRN) . In addition, we provide support for many basic science, animal, and epidemiologic research projects.

The Research Office supports the research team, facilities, and committees that oversee the research activities in addition to managing the pre- and post-award activities for VA-grants.

As a Veteran, we thank you for your service to our country and for your interest in VA research. We value your input into how research is conducted at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System, and will respond to the concerns, opinions and suggestions of research participants.

Research Participants (current, prospective or past), or their designated representatives, may contact our team to discuss any of these topics about research studies at the VALBHS:

• General questions, concerns or complaints about research.
• Research related injury.
• Questions about your rights as a research participant.
• Questions, concerns or complaints about a specific study when study staff are not available or when you would rather talk to someone other than a study staff member.

We are committed to handling inquiries in a safe, courteous, confidential, and reliable way. We will try to answer questions and resolve problems or concerns as soon as possible. If an issue cannot be resolved satisfactorily, it will be forwarded to the Administrative Officer for Research and/ or the Associate Chief of Staff for Research. In addition, contact information for Research Subjects Rights is on the last page of all VA Consent Form.

The Network of Dedicated Enrollment Sites (NODES) is a consortium of VA medical centers that have teams (nodes) dedicated to conducting VA Cooperative Studies Program (CSP) clinical trials to enhance the overall performance, compliance, and management of CSP multi-site research. In addition, NODES share best practices and provide local insights to CSP Central Office and CSP Centers on trial design and related considerations that can help with study management and conduct. Further, each node helps to create a stronger local community of clinical research. For more information, visit the VA Cooperative Studies Program website. 

VA Long Beach Healthcare System (VALBHS) has been a site for NODES since the program was established in 2012. There are currently 21 NODES working together to share best practice and provide insights.

NODES Director

Timothy Morgan, MD, has been the VALB NODES Director since 2012. He is the Chief of Hepatology at the VALBHS. In addition to leading VALB NODES, he serves in multiple leadership positions at the VA as well as external to VA. He is the Director of the VA’s Liver Disease Program. For the past 35 years, Dr. Morgan has been a Principal Investigator (PI) on clinical research projects, including CSPs, multicenter NIH clinical trials, investigator-initiated, and industry-sponsored projects. He is the Site Investigator for the VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP), and CSP #2023 (the PREMIUM Study), and was the Principal Proponent for CSP #275.

Dr. Morgan is the chair of the VALB Research and Department (R&D) Committee. 

NODES Associate Director of Operations (ADO)

Aliya Asghar has been with VALB NODES since 2012. She is a foreign medical graduate with extensive knowledge in clinical trials. Ms. Asghar joined NODES after serving as a research coordinator for 8 years with Dr. Morgan on NIH, and Industry- sponsored trials. Ms. Asghar is a scientific voting member of the local Institutional Review Board (IRB).

NODES Support Staff

Enrollment Manager: Romena Helal, MS 
Quality Assurance Specialist: Karyn Isip, BA
NODES Assistant: Diana Pham, BS 

For research study volunteer opportunities at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System, visit the National Library of Medicine Clinical Trials. You can also download the Volunteering in Research brochure for more information.

CSP Studies

Project # & Title  

• CSP #577 - Colonoscopy vs. Fecal Immunochemical Testing in Reducing Mortality from Colorectal Cancer  (Active, Not Recruiting)
• CSP #2001 - Investigation of Rifampin to Reduce Pedal Amputations for Osteomyelitis in Diabetics (VA Intrepid) – (Recruiting)
• CSP #2002 - Investigation of Metformin in Pre-Diabetes on Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular OuTcomes (VA-IMPACT) – (Recruiting)
• CSP #2005 - Veterans Affairs Lung Cancer Surgery Or Stereotactic Radiotherapy trial (VALOR) – (Recruiting)
• CSP #2008 - Pentoxifylline in Diabetic Kidney Diseases – (Recruiting)
• CSP #2009 - Sequential and Comparative Evaluation of Pain Treatment Effectiveness Response: The SCEPTER Trial – (Recruiting)
• CSP #2014 - Comparative Effectiveness of Two Formulations of Buprenorphine for Treating Opioid Use Disorder in Veterans (VA-BRAVE) – (Recruiting) 
• CSP #2016 - National Adaptive Trial for PTSD related Insomnia – (Recruiting)
• CSP #2019 - Basal Cell Carcinoma Chemoprevention Trial (B3C) (Not yet recruiting)
• CSP #2023 - Preventing Liver Cancer Mortality through Imaging with Ultrasound vs. MRI (The PREMIUM Study) – (Recruiting)
• CSP #2025 - Geriatric OUt-of-hospital Randomized MEal Trial in heart failure: Veterans Affairs (GOURMET-VA) – (Not yet recruiting)