Biography

Thomas Flaig, MD, was appointed vice chancellor for research for the CU Denver and CU Anschutz Medical Campus in March of 2020. A medical oncologist, Dr. Flaig has been part of CU since 2003, when he arrived as an oncology fellow.

In 2016, he became the inaugural chief clinical research officer of UCHealth and associate dean for clinical research at the CU School of Medicine. In this role, he led numerous efforts to create the infrastructure and streamline the processes to provide an efficient and attractive environment for conducting research on our campuses, and to coordinate research activities with the university’s clinical partners.

Dr. Flaig has provided leadership for the expansion of systemwide clinical trial activity at UCHealth and the ongoing implementation of OnCore campuswide. A comprehensive clinical trial management system, OnCore has greatly improved and modernized the management approach to the more than 1,000 clinical research projects on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.

In addition to his clinical and administrative work, Dr. Flaig has significant clinical and translational research experience, having led both local and national multi-center clinical trials and served as the local principal investigator on a large number of Phase I, II and III studies. He previously served as medical director of the clinical trials office and associate director of clinical research at the CU Cancer Center.

Known nationally for his work on bladder cancer, Dr. Flaig has been a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Investigational Drug Steering Committee and the bladder cancer task force. He also serves as chair of the bladder cancer committee for the National Comprehensive Care Network, which publishes internationally recognized treatment guidelines, updated regularly with new research findings.

He has personal experience with the translation of lab discoveries to the clinic, having founded a small business to advance work done in his lab and associated patents.

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