A major goal in the COBRE in Acute Care Research and Rural Disparities at Maine Medical Center is to provide a structured translational/clinical mentorship, advisory, and statewide network to advance successful acute care research. In a rural state such as Maine, there are significant disparities in both healthcare and research inclusion, particularly in clinical areas that require urgent action. In addition, due to the severity of medical situations requiring urgent care, typical processes for patient and family consent for research are not feasible or effective. This COBRE will address these problems by creating infrastructure, leadership, and a learning healthcare system that spans our rural state. This Administrative and Professional Development Core provides a clear leadership, advisory, and mentorship network to accomplish the aims of the overall program. The COBRE is led by Douglas Sawyer MD, PhD, Chief Academic Officer, who oversees Academic Affairs, including research, at Maine Medical Center. With decades of experience as a leader in clinical cardiovascular services and basic and translational research, he is a physician-scientist well suited to oversee the entire COBRE program. He will be assisted in this Core by Thomas Gridley PhD, who will leverage his extensive research experience and current program management of our Northern New England Clinical and Translational Research Network. Drs. Sawyer and Gridley have established a diverse Internal Advisory Committee, chaired by Clifford Rosen MD, the PI of the Northern New England Clinical and Translational Research Network and Director of our Center for Clinical and Translational Research. In addition, strong mentorship teams have been selected for our project leaders to provide scientific and clinical content expertise as well as career and professional development advice. This administrative core holds responsibility for the following: 1) providing leadership and management for overall program implementation and evaluation, including organization of meetings, communications with research teams, facilitating project leader interaction with our Community Engagement, Bioethics, and Outreach Core, ensuring a robust evaluation process for projects and cores, communicating with advisory and mentorship groups, and reporting to the NIH; 2) identifying and supporting project leaders in the area of acute care research while facilitating their reach into rural communities in our state; 3) supporting our community engagement and outreach efforts by working with institutional and state healthcare leaders in developing strategic goals and implementation plans, 4) administering a collaborative pilot project program to establish a pipeline for growth of acute care research; and 5) working with existing research and clinical programs within our institution and with academic and healthcare partners to synergize efforts towards advancing clinical and translational research. The proposed COBRE represents a first-of-its-kind clinically-focused COBRE in Maine, geared towards reducing disparities in acute healthcare and research in our region.
