Evaluating productivity in clinical research programs: the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP).

This paper outlines an approach to studying productivity in clinical research programs that incorporates environmental, organizational, provider, and patient specific factors in the model of production process. We describe how this approach has been applied to the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Community Clinical Oncology Programs (CCOPs). Next, a practical evaluative model of the productive process in CCOPs is outlined and its use in evaluation and monitoring performance in CCOPs is discussed. Each level of the model is described and a number of factors potentially affecting each level are explored. Finally, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and show how management can use it to study and improve the productivity of clinical research programs.