INTEGRATIVE HEALTH SCIENCES FACILITIES CORE: PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The goal of the CEHS Integrative Health Sciences Facilities Core (IHSFC) is to facilitate the translation of research findings of CEHS into clinical or public health applications. MIT does not have a Medical School or a School of Public Health, which typically would have built-in mechanisms to facilitate clinical translation. Nevertheless, we have an outstanding science and engineering portfolio that produces technology that continuously needs to be moved toward application. Our IHSFC performs that translational function. We address the need for a mechanism to enable clinical translation in five ways. First, we have a strong bidirectional connection with the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School through Center member and Harvard Dean, Prof. David Hunter, who acts as a formal conduit for information exchange and helps to establish collaborations with the medical community. Second, we are formally connected with the Harvard Catalyst via Dr. Catherine Ricciardi, who is employed by both CEHS and Harvard to facilitate clinical translation. The Harvard Catalyst (http://catalyst.harvard.edu), which has MIT as an active, financially supporting stakeholder, is a consortium of clinical expertise from across the Harvard hospital network designed to find paths to bring the benefits of new technology to people. The IHSFC promotes two-way interaction between CEHS members and the Catalyst clinical network. Third, CEHS has developed over the past decade a critical mass of clinician-scientists, and we have recently restructured our IHSFC management team to better utilize our impressive local assets; as described in the proposal, the new IHSFC Core is managed by two very active Center members, Michael Yaffe and James Fox, and they are assisted by two Hospital Liaison Program Directors and a seven person team of Clinical and Translational Consultants. Fourth, the IHSFC, via its interaction with the CEHS IAC, manages a set of ?Translational Pilot Projects.? These Pilot Projects facilitate the benchtop to bedside translation process. Fifth, the enrichment activities of the Administrative Core provide for frequent presentations of Center member research. Examples of these venues include the CEHS Friday Forums, the CEHS Poster Session, and our frequent research and mentoring seminars, all of which are well attended. At such events, our members are ever vigilant to recommend ways to connect what is heard and seen to our translational (IHSFC) as well as our community engagement (via our COE2C) agendas. This five- part program to support clinical translation has worked well for us and is noted as a critical and attractive feature by new members of CEHS.
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