The big players in clinical research have a significant degree of overlap with the big players in basic science, but as a Venn diagram they are certainly not fully superimposable. Places like the University of Cincinnati, while no slouch in basic science at all, have truly stellar clinical research programs in neurology. I don't want to name names, but there are also places with fantastic basic science programs who haven't made many waves in clinical research, some of them "big names". Then there are the places that are bastions of research -- basic, translational, and clinical -- that seem to have it all. Those places get mentioned around here a lot.
While you may be certain that you want to do clinical research, I would be careful about heading somewhere that doesn't have a foundation of basic science and translational backing. Success begets success, and while there may be someone at the program you are looking at that seems to attract all the big multi-center clinical trials, that person could leave, or the funding could dry up, and leave you hanging. The best situation you can get is when there is a strong translational pipeline that introduces new targets or drugs that you can then take the lead in bringing to human trials.
I'm sure others around here can name names for you. I don't want to get involved in that.
