Featured
CTSA Committee
The Communications Workgroup serves as a forum for CTSA representatives and NIH participants to share local CTSA communications activities and experiences, identify national CTSA communication needs, and generate ideas to address these needs. Further, this workgroup helps inform the development of the CTSAweb.org public and log-in sites and effective communication channels to the various stakeholders within, across, and beyond the CTSA Consortium.
The Communications Workgroup has had four meetings, three Web-based meetings and a face-to-face meeting on December 13, 2007, in Bethesda, Maryland, which was led by Mr. Tom Fogg (Rochester), Interim Chair. The workgroup is currently in the process of electing a chair and vice chair. The chair and vice chair will each serve a one-year term, with the vice chair designated as chair-elect. The workgroup will have quarterly Web meetings and annual face-to-face meetings.
At the December 13th meeting, the Communications Workgroup established an operations committee and two taskforces.
Operations Committee:
The operations committee will develop and formalize the goals for the workgroup, develop agendas for meetings, and monitor the progress of the workgroup.
Communications Systems and Information Management Taskforce:
This taskforce will work to identify and share communication management models and systems requirements and will serve as a forum for sharing information, ideas, and thoughts on effective communication platforms. It will work in close coordination with the informatics and administration leaders for the CTSAs.
Media/Public Relations Taskforce:
This taskforce will identify and define opportunities to engage various audiences and inform them of CTSA activities, progress, and accomplishments. It will work to identify, coordinate, and develop communication efforts between NIH and the institutions. This will be done in part through the development of a Communications Activities and Timelines Grid in the Wiki.
CTSA Consortium Members Present at January NCRR Advisory Council
The opportunities and challenges associated with launching and sustaining homes for clinical and translational science were presented at NCRR’s advisory council meeting on January 30. The National Advisory Research Resources Council conducts the second-level review of NCRR’s grant applications and advises the organization on its funding, policies, and program considerations.
Representing all 24 sites, members of the CTSA Consortium Oversight Committee presented their various approaches for implementing the CTSA vision.
The oversight committee’s co-chair Dr. Lars Berglund of the University of California, Davis, led the presentations with a general overview of the consortium and its goals. He was followed by Principal Investigators with CTSAs funded in 2006 and 2007 who provided their own institutional perspectives. The speakers were: Dr. David Guzick of the University of Rochester, Dr. Robert Rizza of the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Henry Ginsberg of Columbia University, Dr. Gordon Bernard of Vanderbilt University, Dr. Daniel Ford of Johns Hopkins University, Dr. David Stephens of Emory University, and Dr. Gary Hunninghake of the University of Iowa.
Their presentations offer unique insights into the people, research, and process at each site. Click here to watch a video of the council meeting. Be sure to scroll down to the “Play Video” button next to “National Advisory Research Resources Council – January 2008.”
Connecting CTSA Steering Committees and Workgroups
The topic-specific CTSA committees, with their institutional expert representatives, have become the workhorses of the Consortium; each provides a forum where investigators work together to identify and dismantle barriers to clinical and translational research. Inevitably, the activities of one CTSA committee relate to and impact the efforts of others—so NCRR uses multiple strategies to coordinate the activities of committees with one another. Coordination is not something that NIH can achieve single-handed, and it requires a great deal of communication. This summary will share how this coordination is accomplished and the responsibilities of the various parties involved.
Starting with the NIH CTSA Coordinators
Each of the CTSA Steering Committees and Workgroups has at least one NCRR Program Official (who is usually a member of the Division for Clinical Research Resources) as a coordinator. It is the daily interaction of these individuals that provides a first level of communication, ensuring that the overlapping needs and shared interests of the Steering Committees and Workgroups are identified early. The CTSA governance allows both individual Steering Committees and the CTSA Consortium Oversight Committee (CCOC) to create new workgroups or taskforces. However, the need for new cross-committee groupings (such as the new IRB group that draws members from Regulatory Knowledge and Clinical Research Ethics) is now being identified. To reduce duplication of effort, requests for new groups will be discussed and evaluated by their originators and the coordinators before being brought to the CCOC for approval.
In the first year of the CTSA program, Steering Committees and Workgroups chiefly reported to the CCOC by webconference. As the size of the consortium has grown, the CTSA Principal Investigators have opted to participate directly in individual Steering Committees and Workgroups to further enhance the CCOC’s awareness of committee activities. Direct participation by PIs in Steering Committee and Workgroup activities should promote Consortium-wide collaboration and allow the PIs to assign priorities across the program as a whole.
Role of the CTSA Committee Members
To complete the cycle of communication within the consortium, you, as a representative of your CTSA on a Steering Committee or Workgroup, must inform your PI of events in your committee. The Booz Allen Hamilton program managers, who are supported through a contract with NCRR, produce meeting reports and summaries within 10 days of most meetings. We hope that you will share these with the PI and key function directors
at your CTSA. The success of the consortium depends on disseminating best practices, and that depends on keeping everyone well informed of committee activities, priorities, plans, and milestones.
Institutional CTSA Events
University of Pennsylvania Symposium
The third international ITMAT Symposium will be held on April 14–15, 2008. This year’s title is Academia in Drug Discovery and Development.
For more information, please visit: http://www.itmat.upenn.edu/symposium.shtml.
University of Pennsylvania Annual Conference on Statistical Issues in Clinical Trials: From Bench to Bedside to Community
The topic of the April 18, 2008, conference is Early, Translational and Proof-of-Concept Studies: The “Go/No Go” Decisions.
For more information, please visit: www.cceb.upenn.edu/biostat/conferences/ClinTrials08/.
Please note: We recognize that this is not a complete listing of Institutional CTSA events with open attendance. Please send your CTSA-sponsored institutional event to Kameha Kidd, kiddka@mail.nih.gov, for inclusion in newsletters and on the CTSAweb.org Events page.
Announcement
CTSA Pre-submission Videocast—March 7, 2008, 2:00–4:00 p.m., ET
NCRR and other NIH staff explain the goals and objectives of the CTSA program and answer questions. View the CTSA Pre-submission Videocast
(requires free RealPlayer
).
Upcoming Committee Meeting Dates
Key: CTSA Consortium Meeting CTSA Consortium Workshop NIH Staff Meeting
| February 2008 |
| Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
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1
Community Engagement Regional Workshops Workgroup
1:00–2:00 p.m.
Call: 1-866-285-7778
Access Code: 2666864
NIH coordinator Donna Jo McCloskey
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4
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6 |
7
Community Engagement CAPP Workgroup
12:00–1:00 p.m.
Call: 1-866-285-7778
Access Code: 2666864
NIH coordinator
Donna Jo McCloskey
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11
Translational
10:00–11:00 a.m.
Democracy 1, 9th Floor, Conference Room 987
|
Communications Media/Public Relations Taskforce
1:00–2:30 p.m.
Call: 1-866-285-7778
Access Code: 6864228
NIH coordinators
Lori Mulligan
Kameha Kidd
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12
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13
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14 |
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20
Clinical Research Management Taskforce
4:00–5:00 p.m.
Call: 1-866-285-7778
Access Code: 7348528
NIH coordinator
Daniel Rosenblum |
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27
Clinical Research Ethics
3:00–4:00 p.m.
Democracy 1, 9th Floor, Conference Room 987
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28 |
29 |
| March 2008 |
| Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
3
Pediatrics
3:30–5:00 p.m.
Rockledge II, Room 10091
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5 |
6
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11 |
12
Translational Steering Committee
10:00–11:00 a.m.
Democracy 1, 9th Floor, Conference Room 987
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13 |
14 |
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19
PPP Agreements Workgroup
3:30–4:30 p.m.
NIH coordinators
Tony L. Beck
Mark Scheideler
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20 |
21
Community Engagement Operations Monthly Meeting
12:00–1:00 p.m.
NIH coordinator
Donna Jo McCloskey
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26
PPP Steering Committee
3:00–4:30 p.m.
NIH coordinators
Tony L. Beck
Mark Scheideler
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28
Regulatory Knowledge
2:00–3:00 p.m.
NIH coordinator
Jody Sachs |
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* Please note that the meetings and events listed in this
newsletter are provided for your information. If you wish to
participate, please contact the NIH coordinator.
Updated Information
on CTSAweb.org
CTSAweb.org was developed to ensure access to CTSA resources, enhance communication, and encourage sharing. The site continues to evolve with the CTSA in promoting this new direction of clinical and translational science.
Additional features and updates:
- Get to the CTSA Wiki from CTSAweb.org! Click on the “Consortium Login” link from the top banner on the CTSA home page to go directly to the CTSA Wiki.
- View CTSA institution events on the Events page.
- Download CTSA Fact Sheets highlighting the 2006 grantees and 2007 grantees from the Communication Toolkit page.
- View upcoming meetings and access previous meeting information through the Calendar.
- View CTSA Committee Representatives from each grantee institution.
- View publicly available resources that promote clinical and translational research on the Resources for Researchers page.
Access archived CTSA e-Newsletters on the CTSAweb.org CTSAs in the News page.
We
hope you find this newsletter helpful and informative. If you
have any questions or comments, please direct them to Kameha
Kidd, Office of Science Policy and Public Liaison, NCRR.
