A Planning Grant for the MCRC will allow us to harness the local resources of the University of Pennsylvania which are directly relevant to the assembly of a competitive proposal. The objectives of the planning phase will be to coordinate the individuals and the structures of relevance within a unified body; to institute a seminar series which integrates both Health Services Rearch, Patient Oriented Research and Clinical Epidemiological aspects of musculoskeletal, joint and skin diseases; to constitute and develop a bioanalytical and statistical core; to harness the resources of the health system and the GCRC to facilitate performance and integration of the elements of the clinical research enterprise in this area; to initiate the research projects relevant to the proposal; to visit prior units funded through this mechanism; to constitute and achieve input from both internal and external review boards and finally to hold an offsite retreat to assess the results of the planning process prior to submission of a full MCRC proposal. The P.I. leads three entities within the university, the Department of Pharmacology, the Center for Experimental Therapeutics and the GCRC, which cover the spectrum from very basic through translational to applied clinical research. Furthermore, he has a track record of cooperative grant applications with both Dr. Brian Strom of Clinical Epidemiology and Dr. Sanford Schwartz of Health Services Research. During the planning phase the resources will be assembled to allow Dr. Schwartz assume the leadership of the proposal proper with the assistance of Drs. Albert and Catella-Lawson. Additional to the GCRC, the Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Leonard Davis Institute other elements within the institution of direct relevance to the core activities of this grant are the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the Center for Experimental Therapeutics, the Institute for Gene Therapy, the Institute of Aging and the Center for Bioethics. The core departments and divisions - Dermatology, Orthopedic Surgery and the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine all have strong track records in basic and clinical research. Members of these entities are fully integrated into the planning phase of this application. The University of Pennsylvania is well suited towards the development of an MCRC which will integrate both Health Services Research, Clinical Epidemiology and Patient Oriented Research.
