CTSA PROGRAM UPDATE

October 27, 2017

2017 FALL CTSA PROGRAM MEETING

 THANK YOU!

 The CTSA Program Meeting Planning Committee would like to thank those who attended the meeting this week.  One of the highlights of the meeting was the introduction of the two new coordinating centers: the CTSA Program Center for Leading Innovation and Collaboration (CLIC) and the CTSA Program National Data to Health (CD2H).  These centers will assist in realizing the strategic goals of NCATS while strengthening the national network.  The NCATS Director, Christopher P. Austin made an impassioned request for the CTSA Program to answer the nations’ call during a time of crisis.  The strength and diversity of the CTSA Program hubs constitute a unique national resource that is ideally suited to the opioid epidemic effort to get more treatments to more patients more quickly.

Slides and other materials from the meeting are available on the CLIC website.

Questions? Contact Redonna Chandler.

COMMON METRICS

COMMON METRICS IMPLEMENTATION SUCCESS STORY
Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) used data from the Common Metrics Implementation to help VCU’s IRB leadership analyze their protocol review workflow, spurring enhanced efficiencies in IRB processes. Read their story on the Common Metrics Implementation website under “Implementation Success Stories.”

The Common Metrics Implementation Success Stories are intended to highlight innovations and offer practical ideas for using the Results-Based Accountability framework and other Common Metrics implementation resources and tools to support continuous improvement.  Tufts is happy to work with member institutions to help develop a story for the series.

If you would like to share your story, please contact Nick Moustakas

DOMAIN TASKFORCE (DTF) UPDATE

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT TASKFORCE

The Career Sustainability Workgroup sent out their TL1 pre-survey and is working with the new CTSA Program Coordinating Center in Rochester (CLIC) to continue collecting responses.  The pre-survey is aimed at identifying TL1 programs in the consortium and key contacts.  The group is continuing to prepare/refine their second TL1 survey which will help assess trainee career sustainability and independence.

The Harmonizing Competencies/Personalized Pathways Workgroup is continuing to process their survey data in an effort to collapse down the list of competencies to develop a “Clinical Researcher Phenotype” with the skills necessary to “master” that phenotype.

INFORMATICS DOMAIN TASKFORCE (iDTF)

The transition of support for the Informatics Domain Task Force from Vanderbilt’s C4 to Rochester’s CLIC is nearly complete.  Members should now be receiving regular email communications from CLIC.  
Elections for the iDTF Lead Team will occur soon, so please think about nominating someone or self-nominating.  There are 2 open slots.  Peter Tarczy-Hornoch has accepted the lead team’s nomination as the elected co-chair for next year; both Justin Starren and Bob Clark will rotate off of the Lead Team.  Additionally, one of the PI’s from CD2H will be joining Peter as co-chair of the iDTF Lead Team.  Thank you to Bob and Justin for your years of service!
CLIC will be surveying the iDTF membership about having an in-person meeting after the Spring 2018 AMIA summits in San Francisco (similar to last year).

The Sustainable Informatics Workgroup: CLIC and C4 outlined the transition plan to the working group.  The group is very close to finishing their white paper and is thinking about where to submit for publication.

Congratulations to the EHR Based Research Recruitment Workgroup for having their paper accepted to the Clinical and Translational Science journal.

LIFESPAN DOMAIN TASKFORCE 

The Single Disease Workgroup continues to work on their manuscript, which they hope to have published before the end of the year.

The Early Life Exposure Working Group had their session for the Pediatric Academic Society (PAS) accepted.  The group is continuing to work on their Conceptual Model.

The Aging Working Group’s next meeting is in November.

COLLABORATION/ENGAGEMENT TASKFORCE 

No updates at this time.

METHODS AND PROCESSES DOMAIN TASKFORCE 

The EMR-based Research Recruitment Working Group’s manuscript, “A Survey of Practices for the Use of Electronic Health Records to Support Research Recruitment”, has been accepted and is in press in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science.

Questions? Fill out the contact form on the CLIC website at clic-ctsa.org/contact or email CLIC at help@clic-ctsa.org.

OPPORTUNITIES

NIH CLINICAL CENTER RFI
As a part of on-going efforts to enhance utilization of the Clinical Center, NIH has published a Request-For-Information (RFI) in the NIH Guide to seek input about areas of scientific opportunity that would benefit from the unique research resources of the Clinical Center.  In particular, input is being sought to identify areas where the need for in-patient research beds exceeds availability.  The RFI, NOT-OD-18-007, will be open for 30 days closing on November 24, 2017.

Questions?  Contact the Clinical Center POC.

NIH SPARC PROGRAM RFI
The Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program at the NIH Common Fund has released two Request-For-Information (RFI) calls soliciting public input on device-based clinical neuromodulation studies, specifically involving peripheral or spinal cord neuromodulation of organ function. One RFI, NOT-RM-17-023, seeks input from surgeons, interventionalists and other relevant clinicians. The other, NOT-RM-17-015, targets industry stakeholders. The overall goal of these RFIs is to obtain strategic input on ways to improve both the therapeutic potential and scientific impact of clinical studies involving neuromodulation devices.

Clinician perspectives are needed on various topics such as the state of surgical planning and access tools, clinical considerations related to device design and functionality, and the potential use of clinical settings to collect physiology data for research. Input from industry scientists and engineers is sought on ways to establish effective public-private partnerships around clinical studies, to pursue new therapeutic opportunities using existing technology and to explore the use of devices with expanded research capabilities to maximize data yield from clinical device-based studies.

As explained in the RFIs, responses can be submitted via email SPARC_TPNI@mail.nih.gov, through tele-conference meetings with the SPARC team requested at http://nihsparc.setmore.com, or through voice mail messages left at the provided telephone number.  This RFI will close on December 1, 2017.

Questions? Contact the SPARC POC.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MEETINGS ON CLIC-CTSA WEBSITE 
CTSA Program hubs can upload information about important meetings they host on the CLIC website 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.

Questions? Fill out the contact form on the CLIC website at clic-ctsa.org/contact or email CLIC at help@clic-ctsa.org.

NIH NCATS: Improving Health Through Smarter Science
Connect with us!: https://ncats.nih.gov/connect