Alpa Upadhyaya and Barry Boatman look at images from a gamma scan at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. Gamma scans show the amounts of a radioactive drug used to treat lymphoma.

As the manager of clinical research at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Barry Boatman, RN, MA, BSN, CCRC, CIM, OCN, wields a cellphone the way surgeons do a scalpel ¨ with swift precision, knowing that his skills can make a difference in a patient's life.

A patient with advanced kidney cancer recently called Boatman to say he didn't have many options left. Was there any new research?

A computer hunt found a promising drug that was extending some patients' lives. Boatman immediately called the drug company to persuade it to bring the trial to Atlanta and found physicians willing to refer their patients. By mid-July, the trial was up and running at Northside Hospital and open to patients all over Atlanta.

"We work fast because there's only a certain supply of a new drug and it's a big deal to be chosen as a site," Boatman said. "I convince drug companies that, because Atlanta sees so many cancer patients, we can get them good information."

Once a trial is up and running, Boatman helps enroll patients and follows up with them.

"I love it when patients put me on their speed dial and tell me I'm part of their support group," he said. "I hear the strange symptoms and the good news. One patient that the doctors had just about written off called me from his tractor - he was farming that day."

Boatman works about 60 hours a week managing the hospital's nine cardiology and 60 cancer clinical trials, searching for new drugs and trials by computer and reading about 1,200 pages of protocols a month to serve as an Institutional Review Board coordinator.

"I don't notice the hours because I'm doing absolutely what I want to be doing, and I know there's a patient or a doctor needing help on the other end," he said. "My attitude is that if anyone contacts us, it's our problem."

Boatman recently found a trial for a Boston physician in his own building. "It was being run by another doctor,
but he didn't know about it," he said.

Boatman knew he wanted to become a research nurse after helping care for his grandfather, who died of lung cancer.

"Many nurses are led to believe that they aren't nursing if they're not doing hands-on clinical work," Boatman said. ?Working with computers and data doesn't sound very exciting, but I can tell so many stories of patients who, had they not been in a clinical trial, wouldn't be with us today."

Research nurses get to administer new drugs for their patients long before they're on the market - drugs like Bexxar, which targets lymphoma cells and significantly reduces tumors.

"A patient had heard about this drug on "60 Minutes" and were able to bring the study here," Boatman said. "About 30 percent of patients see significant, if not complete, tumor response. One patient had tumors all over the body and after 12 weeks we did a scan and found nothing. That's pretty exciting stuff."

Boatman said most patients participate in trials in order to get better, or to make a difference in a future patient's life. The research nurse can help identify patients for clinical trials and work as part of the care team. The job calls for specialized disease knowledge, good clinical skills, the ability to think quickly and solve problems over the phone, as well as excellent writing and computer skills.

"The pay is good ($55,000 to $75,000 per year), but research nurses are about as rare as dragon's teeth," Boatman said. "Anyone seeking a job in research will find plenty of opportunities."