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Transforming translational research
Hutchinson Center collaborates with the UW in NIH-funded consortium working to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science
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Dr. Nora Disis Clinical Research Division |
Hutchinson Center collaborates with the UW in NIH-funded consortium working to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science
The University of Washington Institute of Translational Health Sciences is among 12 additional academic medical organizations nationwide to receive funding through the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs). The UW Institute is a consortium of six UW health science professional schools and multiple partner institutions that will work to educate the public about translational research and the importance of participating in clinical trials.
The CTSA site will receive $62 million of the approximately $577 million in total funding that will be awarded over five years to the national consortium. This site includes the Hutchinson Center, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies, Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, and the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research.
The national consortium sites (initially 12 last October), serve as discovery engines capable of rapidly translating research into prevention strategies and clinical treatments, When fully implemented in 2012, the 60-institution consortium will link together to energize and transform the way clinical and translational research is conducted at academic health centers across the country.
The institute is led by the Hutchinson Center's Dr. Nora Disis, also associate dean for Translational Science in the UW School of Medicine, a UW professor of medicine and director of the UW Center for Translational Medicine in Women's Health.
The institute will integrate research and clinical institutions across the five-state region of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Its features will include:
- a community engagement plan which considers diversity across race, ethnicity, culture, rural and urban locations, geography, health status and health service delivery in partnership with Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies;
- an integrated ethics program linking adult and pediatric medical centers in partnership with Children's Hospital;
- advanced capability for therapeutic product development and clinical testing, in conjunction with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, aimed at enhancing future health care in the region.
In addition, six American Indian/Native American network sites have been invited to collaborate with the institute.
"As a part of this national consortium, the institute will be able to foster new health science interactions across the sites through technology, education and research support efforts," Disis said. "Not only will our partner institutions and network sites here in the Northwest help us accelerate health sciences research, but we'll be able to leverage expertise and resources across the CTSA institutions nationwide to provide new treatments more quickly and efficiently to patients."
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