The Veterinary Clinical Investigations Center (VCIC) is a clinical service within the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine focusing on the implementation of high-quality clinical trials for client-owned companion animals.
Under the leadership of Michael DiGregorio, the center is staffed with full-time veterinary nurses trained in Good Clinical Practice, whose effort is devoted to all aspects of clinical trial implementation, from study set-up and recruitment to data collection, data management and study closeout. The VCIC is involved in the coordination and implementation of industry, foundation and government funded studies including FDA- and USDA-regulated studies.
All clinical trials are conducted and documented in accordance with the principles of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) set forth in the Veterinary International Cooperation on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Veterinary Medicinal Products (VICH GL-9).
The VCIC has been active in the successful completion of both single center and multi-center trials. Past studies have focused on a broad spectrum of conditions including 
acute and chronic pain, infectious disease, obesity, sepsis and trauma, and have involved many hospital services including oncology, cardiology, dermatology, neurology, endocrinology, interventional radiology and internal medicine.
The VCIC matches an investigator from the faculty and staff at the Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, who has the expertise needed for a given sponsored study, and then facilitates the efficient start-up, high quality data collection and successful completion of that study.
For research involving investigational compounds including blinded, placebo-controlled studies, the VCIC works collaboratively with the Investigational Drug Service (IDS) at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The IDS is a research-only pharmacy that can provide 21CFR11 inventory monitoring, compounding and dispensing of investigational medications.