Education & Training

The mission of the CTSI Education & Training program is to provide educational opportunities that facilitate the training of clinical and basic science investigators, clinical trialists, laboratory technicians, study coordinators and other related personnel who are required to establish and support multi- and interdisciplinary clinical and translational researchers and research teams. Our goal is to offer these opportunities to a broad spectrum of pre-collegiate, undergraduate and graduate students and faculty, train these individuals to conduct multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary investigations and, make a major contribution to a new national workforce of clinical & translational science researchers and research teams.

The CTSI Education & Training program is directed by Marian C. Limacher, MD, Professor of Medicine. Dr. Limacher is a nationally recognized clinical scientist who has been the lead investigator at UF for the Women's Health Initiative and has directed the K30 APPCI since its inception. Dr. Limacher chairs quarterly meetings of the Training Oversight Committee and reports directly to the CTSI Steering and Planning Committee.

Training Oversight Committee

The membership of the TOC includes the co-directors of the CTSI TL1 program (Wayne T. McCormack, PhD and Stephen I. Hsu, MD, PhD), the KL2 director (Marco Pahor, MD) and the directors of the Clinical Research Coordinator Certificate Program (James Cauraugh, PhD and Teresa M. D'Angelo, RN, BSN, CCRC). Additional members representing the CTSI cores of Regulatory Knowledge and Research Support, Clinical and Research Ethics, Research Study Design and Biostatistics, and Participant and Clinical Interactions, will be active on the TOC. This committee oversees recruitment, evaluation and retention of trainees in the Program and will also evaluate, recommend, and approve Program changes. The TOC will provide written evaluations of trainees and mentors for the Department Chairs to be considered in annual personnel evaluations and for advancement.

NIH Definition of Clinical Research:

(1) Patient-oriented research. Research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator (or colleague) directly interacts with human subjects. Excluded from this definition are in vitro studies that utilize human tissues that cannot be linked to a living individual. Patient-oriented research includes: (a) mechanisms of human disease, (b) therapeutic interventions, (c) clinical trials, and (d) development of new technologies.

(2) Epidemiologic and behavioral studies.

(3) Outcomes research and health services research.

References:

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/women_min/training/tsld007.htm

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/women_min/training/tsld008.htm

http://clinicalresearch.nih.gov/

NIH Definition of Translational Research:

Translational research is the process of applying ideas, insights, and discoveries generated through basic scientific inquiry to the treatment or prevention of human disease.

To improve human health, scientific discoveries must be translated into practical applications. Such discoveries typically begin at "the bench" with basic research - in which scientists study disease at a molecular or cellular level - then progress to the clinical level, or the patient's "bedside". Scientists are increasingly aware that this bench-to-bedside approach to translational research is really a two-way street. Basic scientists provide clinicians with new tools for use in patients and for assessment of their impact, and clinical researchers make novel observations about the nature and progression of disease that often stimulate basic investigations. Translational research has proven to be a powerful process that drives the clinical research engine. However, a stronger research infrastructure could strengthen and accelerate this critical part of the clinical research enterprise. The NIH Roadmap attempts to catalyze translational research in various ways, including enhancing the discipline of clinical and translational science.

Growing barriers between clinical and basic research, along with the ever the increasing complexities involved in conducting clinical research, are making it more difficult to translate new knowledge to the clinic - and back again to the bench. These challenges are limiting professional interest in the field and hampering the clinical research enterprise at a time when it should be expanding.

Through discussions with deans of academic health centers, recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, and meetings with the research community, the NIH recognized that a broad re-engineering effort is needed to create greater opportunity to catalyze the development of a new discipline of clinical and translational science. The outcome, a bolder transforming vision for 21st Century, resulted in the launch of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Consortium in October 2006.

References:

http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/overview-translational.asp

http://www.ctsaweb.org/