2:22 p.m., May 6, 2009----Dr. Barbara Alving, director of the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health, shared her views on the agency's Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) at a symposium at the University of Delaware on Wednesday, May 6.

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The symposium was sponsored by the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance (DHSA), a partnership of the University of Delaware, Thomas Jefferson University, Christiana Care Health System and Nemours that is dedicated to healthcare education, research and service.

Alving began by praising the DHSA and congratulating the members of the alliance on its recent $17.4-million INBRE grant from the National Center for Research Resources.

“You have a tremendous richness here in biomedical and clinical research and a tremendous knowledge about how to get things done,” she said.

The CTSA program was launched to transform clinical and translational research across the nation. The national CTSA network currently comprises 39 medical research institutions that are working together to speed laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients, engage communities in clinical research, and train clinical and translational researchers.

According to Alving, the CTSAs are creating national and regional partnership opportunities, providing local leveraging opportunities, supporting pilot projects to inspire young investigators, enabling leveraging of core resources, and building connections with business schools.

Alving admitted that there are challenges associated with establishing a national network of this magnitude. “Not only do the CTSAs have to organize themselves,” she said, “but they also have to work as a consortium with each other, and they have to work with NIH.”

But the potential benefits are huge, and they are already starting to be realized. Alving gave examples of success: An alliance in Indiana has resulted in the statewide expansion of an electronic medical record system developed at one institution, while a partnership at Columbia University between a neurologist and a biomedical engineer has resulted in the development of an assistive device for children with spinal muscular atrophy.

To encourage and enhance collaboration, extra funding has been provided for consortia to develop informatics pilot programs that support small to medium-sized clinical studies carried out by groups of at least three institutions. “Small amounts of extra funding to consortia can go a long way toward promoting innovation,” Alving said.

Social networking as a tool that unites biomedical researchers with common interests is another important aspect of the CTSAs. Web sites are one effective means of not only disseminating information but also enabling collaborators to interact.

The Harvard Catalyst site -- which links 10 schools and 18 health centers, as well as their public, private, and community partners -- enables users to locate and access people, learning opportunities, and other resources. Similarly, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the StarBRITE (Biomedical Research Integration, Translation and Education) portal is a web-based interactive system that provides one-stop shopping for research needs.

Extensive resources have been poured into the CTSAs, and Alving emphasized the need to ask whether we are adding value for the patient. “We need to think about cost,” she said. “New models of healthcare focus on prevention rather than on late treatment options.”

Alving concluded by referring to the CTSAs as a philosophy. “You in Delaware have come together and are practicing this philosophy, as evidenced in your recent award,” she said. “Congratulations and keep up the good work.”

Other speakers included Dr. Ronald Sokol, director of the University of Colorado CTSA, who discussed the "Paradigm of Translational Medicine in the Treatment of Rare Childhood Diseases," and Dr. Julian Solway, who is Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care in the Department of Medicine and director of the University of Chicago Institute for Translational Medicine. His topic was "From Bench to Bedside: Lessons Learned in the University of Chicago CTSA."

The symposium also included panel discussions on “The Promise of the Delaware Valley Institute for Clinical and Translational Research,” “Track Record of Collaboration” and “Translational Medicine: Industry Perspectives.”

Article by Diane Kukich
Photo by Ambre Alexander