Pat Eshleman, the manager of The Corvallis Clinic Clinical Research Center, is a natural born caregiver. She has been taking care of people for most of her life.Her professional caring career beganwith her first nursing positions at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. In addition, Pat was the owner and Director of Nursing for a company that provided home-health infusion services. She began working at The Corvallis Clinic in 1995 as a Case Manager. In 2000, a couple of physicians at the clinic asked her if she’d be willing to help set up and coordinate a research program. The rest, as they say, is history.
With eight employees dedicated to innovative research, Pat has coordinated almost 40 studies and has overseen many, many more. Pat’s research career has covered a lot of different therapeutic areas, such as hypertension, anticoagulation, sepsis, and Alzheimer’s disease, but I will always think of Pat as The Diabetes Queen.
In the last five years alone, Pat has coordinated eight diabetes clinical studies. She is rightfully proud that our group has contributed to the medical science for all new classes of diabetes drugs. When Pat has more diabetes studies than she can accomplish on her own, she pulls in a staff member and educates them on diabetes clinical research. I am now personally under Pat’s wing while being introduced to the diabetes research world. Once my training is complete every research coordinator in the department will have diabetes research experience.
In her spare time Pat is a fearsome gardener – let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be the deer that wanders into her garden. I’m fortunate to have a summer birthday so I get to enjoy the full benefit of Pat’s flower garden. And, of course, the whole staff enjoys Pat’s year-round vegetable garden.
If you or someone you know is interested in receiving top-notch diabetic care, consider calling Pat about one of our multiple diabetes studies. There is no cost to participate in a study. In addition to the research medication, diabetes studies provide testing supplies and research physician visits to participants. For more information about these studies, contact Pat at 541-754-1398, option 1 or send an email to research@corvallisclinic.com.
– Julie Carrico is Associate Coordinator of The Corvallis Clinic Clinical Research Center
