The Roundtable brought together individuals from the academic health community, federal agencies sponsoring and regulating clinical research, private sector sponsors of clinical research, foundations, public and private sector insurance programs, health plans and insurance companies, corporate purchasers of health care, and representatives of patient interests to discuss the challenges facing clinical research, and the approaches that might be followed to create a more supporting environment for the conduct of a broad agenda of high quality clinical research.

The Roundtable provided a forum, and sponsored workshops, for discussion of approaches to resolution of both acute and long-term issues affecting clinical research. It strived to enhance mutual understanding of clinical research among the scientific community and the general public, while enhancing the public's participation in clinical studies. In its deliberations, the Roundtable was attentive to the ethical underpinnings of clinical research while considering a broad range of workforce and infrastructure-related issues that span the full spectrum of clinical research.