Fifty-six representatives from four CTSA grantee institutions met on February 4 in Portland, Oregon, for the first meeting of what they call the “West Coast Consortium.”

The meeting initially was intended to develop a partnership between grantees at the University of California, Davis, and Oregon Health & Science University. However, as planning for the event got under way, the advantages of a larger discussion became readily apparent, and both the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Washington began contributing to a more ambitious agenda.

In addition to the natural bond of shared geography, each group recognized similarities—as well as intriguing differences—in both mission and structure. All were eager to explore opportunities for sharing experiences, building connections to other NCRR-supported programs (such as the National Primate Research Centers), and pooling resources to strengthen each other’s programs. There was hope, moreover, that this effort could serve as a model for consortium-building at the national level.

To ensure the most efficient use of time during the meeting, program representatives held advance planning calls with their counterparts at the other universities to identify synergistic areas of focus. Partner institutions, including Kaiser Permanente and Group Health Cooperative, also helped organize and facilitate the meeting and were well represented among the participants.

The meeting began with presentations from university representatives focusing on programmatic strengths and anticipated opportunities for collaboration. Next came a facilitated discussion that examined a meta-level question relevant to all participants—“How do we build and support investigator collaborations within our CTSAs?”—with the intention of cross-pollinating between programs and disciplines, as well as between institutions. Lunchtime break-out sessions provided further opportunities for potential partnership. The fruits of those discussions were shared in the afternoon, with concentration on key areas and a sharing of thoughts about how best to build the consortium.

Several efforts are now under way to advance this new West Coast consortium. For example, members are considering a plan to contribute a portion of their NCRR pilot funding toward the support of CTSA grantee collaborations. The biomedical informatics teams at UC Davis and Oregon now hold monthly conference calls to develop best practices and synchronize priorities, and the education groups at those institutions have arranged both for reciprocal review of K12 scholar award applications and for shared identification of core competencies. Meanwhile, planning has begun for another gathering of the four institutions in June. The meeting will be scheduled to coordinate with planned regional community workshops and likely will focus on sharing best practices in the areas of education, informatics, and translation.

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: http://www.cceb.upenn.edu/biostat/conferences/ClinTrials08/.

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:

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