CTSA PROGRAM UPDATE

February 24, 2017

COMMON METRICS

UPDATED COMMON METRICS OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES

The Common Metrics Operational Guidelines have been updated. These updates include numerator and denominator statements to assist with calculating metric values, purpose statements describing the intent of the metric, and revised field titles and descriptions to simplify the format and eliminate redundant information. It is important to note that nothing has changed about how the metrics are calculated – these new version are an attempt to add additional guidance and clarity, based on what has been learned during the implementation.

As always, the most up to date versions of the Operational Guidelines are located on the project resource website, under the heading “Common Metrics Operational Guidelines”.

Questions?  Contact Samantha Jonson.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

CTSA PROGRAM + VETERANS AFFAIRS (VA)

If you are interested in joining a group that will brainstorm ideas on how the CTSA Program can better coordinate with the VA, please forward your name and email to Samantha Jonson by Wednesday, March 1^st.  Discussions will be co-led by P.J. Brooks (NCATS) and Joel Tsevat (Cincinnati).

CTSA PROGRAM + CONSENT

If you are interested in joining a group that will brainstorm ideas on how the CTSA Program can develop best practices regarding consent for patients to have their de-identified clinical data used in research and be contacted for participation in future research studies, please forward your name and email to Samantha Jonson by Wednesday, March 1^st. Discussions will be co-led by Redonna Chandler (NCATS) and Kathleen Brady (MUSC).

Questions?  Contact Samantha Jonson.

DOMAIN TASK FORCE (DTF) UPDATES

Workforce Development Domain Task force 

CTSA Career Sustainability Survey of KL2 Programs: This workgroup is soliciting Administrators to respond to a survey. The goal is to achieve 100% survey response from across the national CTSA Program consortium to identify the historical and current practices of KL2 programs in the contemporary CTSA Program era and their relationships with both short and mid-term scholar outcomes. We hope to identify and share “best practices” across the CTSA Program consortium that may contribute to scholar success. Contact workforce_development@ctsac4.org for more information or questions regarding the survey.

INFORMATICS Domain Task force

In-person meeting:  The Informatics DTF will hold an in-person meeting on March 31st from 8 – Noon in San Francisco after the AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science Conference.  If you would like to attend this meeting, please click here to register.  The program committee has had two planning meetings and a tentative agenda for the meeting includes:

1. Welcome from Justin Starren
2. Ken Gersing (NCATS) will present for a brief 5-10 minutes with time for 15-20 minutes of Q&A
3. 5-minute presentations (12-14 total presentations, no time for Q&A, discussions about the talks can occur during the unconference session and/or offline)
4. An unconference session where we will split into about 6 groups based on the topics that get the most votes (these topics do not have to be from the talks given earlier in the day)
5. Closing Remarks

We are currently soliciting topics/speakers, please email C4.informaticsdtf@ctsac4.org if you are interested in presenting.

Sustainable Informatics Workgroup: The group is continuing to refine the content and focus of their paper.

Lifespan Domain Taskforce

In-person Meeting: The in-person meeting will take place on May 6, 2017 from 10:00 – Noon in San Francisco, CA.

• The group is beginning to work on a “Toolkit for Lifecourse Research”.
• The group has been asked to provide input on the 21st Century Cures Act questions:

1) “Appropriate age groups to be included in research studies involving human subjects”; and

2) “Acceptable justifications for excluding participants from a range of age groups from human subjects research studies.”

General Updates: The Full DTF and Early Life Exposure Working Group are working with the All of Us, previously known as the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Team to create questions for a “Childhood Module”.

Collaboration/Engagement Domain Taskforce

In-person meeting: The Collaboration/Engagement DTF will hold an in-Person meeting in Washington, DC on April 19, 2017 from 12:30 pm-4:30 pm ET.

Election results: The Collaboration/Engagement DTF welcomes to the Lead Team: Syed Ahmed, DrPh, FAAP, Senior Dean for Community Engagement, Medical College of Wisconsin, Tabia Akintobi, PhD, MPH, Director & Associate Dean, Prevention Center & Community Engagement, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Louisa Stark, PhD, Professor, Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah!

Methods and Processes Domain Taskforce

In-person Meeting:  The Methods and Processes Lead Team is planning for a half-day in-person meeting the morning of April 19^th at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.  Meeting invitations have been sent to all DTF & Workgroup members along with a draft meeting agenda.

Institutional Readiness for Team Science Workgroup: The workgroup has expanded their request for School of Medicine promotion and tenure documents from all Methods and Processes DTF members.

DACTPerM Workgroup: The workgroup is working on a white paper.

 EMR-based Research Recruitment Workgroup:  The workgroup is working on their data analysis and white paper edits.

 Regulatory Science to Advance Precision Medicine (Joint Effort with Workforce Development DTF):  This workgroup presented to the CTSA Program Steering Committee on January 9^th and was supported by the CTSA Program Steering Committee (SC). Current membership includes individuals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Precision Medicine Coalition, Methods & Processes DTF and Workforce Development DTF.

Assessment of CTSA Institutions Strategies for Engaging Community Partners (Joint Effort with Collaboration DTF):  This workgroup proposal was presented to the CTSA Program Steering Committee on the February 13^th. The CTSA Program SC supported the workgroup.

Questions? For more information on the DTFs (including points-of-contact), click here.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 HUB SPONSORED MEETINGS ON CTSA CENTRAL WEBSITE

CTSA Program hubs can upload information about important meetings they host on the C4 Coordinating Center website, CTSA Central, in order to spread the word about sponsored conferences, activities, and/or items relevant to the CTSA Program and the advancement of translational science.  Hubs can upload conference or meeting information here.

Recent additions are:

• Northwestern University: “Enhancing Quality in the Translational Research (EQuaTR) Workforce Conference”
• Harvard University: “2017 Child Health Symposium – Putting Kids First: Facilitating Multisite Pediatric Studies “10^th Annual Future of Genomic Medicine Conference”
• National Research Mentoring Network/University of Pittsburgh: “Professional Mentoring Skills Enhancing Diversity (PROMISED) Program”
• Tufts University: “Tufts CTSI Stakeholder and Community Engagement Symposium”
• Big Data to Knowledge Training Coordinating Center: Quantitative Approaches to Biomedical Data Science Challenges in our Understanding of the Microbiome

Questions? Contact Colleen Lawrence.

CTSA PROGRAM MEETING

REGISTRATION DEADLINE

Register by April 10^th, 2017!

Questions?  Contact Amit Chaudhari.

NIH NCATS: Improving Health Through Smarter Science

Connect with us!: https://ncats.nih.gov/connect