CTSA PROGRAM UPDATE

June 23, 2017

COMMON METRICS

SEEKING PARTICIPANTS FOR ACCRUAL METRIC PILOT TEST

The Tufts Common Metrics Implementation Team is recruiting up to eight CTSA Program hubs to pilot test the draft Accrual Metric Operational Guideline (OG). The testing is designed to assess the feasibility of collecting data for the metric, the data quality, and the usefulness of the information for conducting strategic management at your hub. Pilot sites will be asked to collect the metric data according to a draft OG, and to use it to develop a preliminary Turn-the-Curve plan.

CTSA Program Hub PIs will receive an email with further details about the pilot test and the accrual metric. Interested hubs will be asked to complete a brief survey.

REMINDER: TIMEFRAME FOR ENTERING 2016 COMMON METRICS VALUES AND UPDATING TURN-THE-CURVE PLANS

CTSA Program hubs have until August 30, 2017 to enter their 2016 Common Metric values and update their Turn-the-Curve (TTC) plans for the first three metrics: Careers in Clinical and Translational Research, IRB Duration, and Pilot Funding and Publications. Updating your TTC plan includes describing any changes to underlying factors, the progress you have made by implementing selected strategies, and the results of any additional measures you are using to track progress with these strategies.

UPDATED METRIC WORKSHEETS NOW AVAILABLE

New versions of the Pilot Publication Metric and Careers Metric worksheets are now available for download. The new versions include the ability to compute 2016 metric values as well as updated examples to help meet the aim of efficiently capturing metric values. The worksheets are available on the Common Metrics Initiative website: Pilot Publication Metric Worksheet (Excel) and Careers Metric Worksheet (PDF).

METRIC DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

A representative from the Common Metric Development Workgroup Team for the Accrual Metric and the Informatics Metric presented an update and progress of their respective metric to the CTSA Program Steering Committee on June 12^th.

• The Accrual Common Metric Development team is in the process of refining the OG. Once the workgroup has completed the OG, volunteer members of the CTSA Program Evaluators will review it for data collection feasibility. It is expected that a draft OG will be complete by mid- to late-July.

• The Informatics Common Metric Development team is working toward finalizing their OG and will meet with a group of volunteer CTSA Program Evaluators in early July.  This metric will be piloted by the new coordinating center later this year. For more information on the Informatics Metric, please visit the Informatics Metric Informational Sheet (PDF).

There may be changes to specific components of the OGs during the metric development and revision process. Therefore, to ensure version control and mitigate miscommunications, NCATS will circulate the OGs to the CTSA Program consortium once OGs are complete enough to begin their pilot studies.

NCATS thanks you for your patience and continued engagement in this initiative!

Questions? Contact Samantha Jonson.

OPPORTUNITY

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENTS TO CTSA PROGRAM HUBS TO DEVELOP BEST PRACTICES FOR SIRB IMPLEMENTATION (FY17)

The April 14^th CTSA Program Update contained information regarding a funding opportunity from the National Institutes of Health Office of the Director (NIH OD) for Administrative Supplements to Develop Best Practices for Single IRB (sIRB) Implementation. That opportunity has been revised and reissued. Please visit the following link for more information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-TR-17-018.html

The submission deadline is July 17, 2017.

Questions? Contact Valery Gordon or P.J. Brooks.

DOMAIN TASKFORCE (DTF) UPDATE

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT DOMAIN TASKFORCE 

The Career Sustainability Workgroup is collaborating with key TL1 leaders to create a TL1 Career Sustainability Survey (analogous to what was done for the KL2 program) to measure key TL1 program elements that contribute to scholar success. To increase their involvement in Workforce DTF efforts, the TL1 leaders are also participating in the bi-monthly Workforce Development DTF meetings.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS

DRUG INFORMATION ASSOCIATION (DIA) – NCATS COLLABORATION 

On the March 25^th CTSA Program Principal Investigator (PI) call, Dr. Sudip Parikh, Sr. Vice President and Managing Director of DIA, shared a presentation on the DIA – NCATS Collaboration with the CTSA Program hubs. DIA is a non-profit, individual membership association that serves as a neutral global forum for all those involved in health care product development. The DIA – NCATS collaboration was established to help bridge the gaps among industry-, academic- and government-funded scientific research programs by providing opportunities for industry and academic researchers to interact and overcome cultural barriers. Together, DIA and NCATS can progress scientific and clinical research conversations to improve translational medicine efficiencies and ultimately deliver safe and effective treatments to patients more quickly. If you would like more information about the DIA, or want to contribute ideas for enhancing collaborations between your CTSA Program hub and DIA, please contact DIA’s Sr. Scientific Liaison, Dr. Raleigh Malik.

Questions?  Contact Raleigh Malik.

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 listed below. Please click the event name for more information!

Questions? Contact Colleen Lawrence.

NIH NCATS: Improving Health Through Smarter Science

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