? ADMINISTRATIVE CORE The primary objective of this Core Center for Clinical Research is to promote impactful research in pediatric rheumatic and non-inflammatory musculoskeletal diseases (PMSKD) by the local and national Research Community with a focus on enhancing our well-established research programs and institutional expertise in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE) and juvenile-onset fibromyalgia (JFM). The role of the Administrative Core (AC) is to serve as the executive, coordinating and oversight component of the Pediatric musculOskeletal & RheumaTology Innovation COre center (PORTICO) to enhance clinical research in PMSKD. The proposed Director is Hermine I Brunner, MD MSc MBA, and the Associate Director is Susmita Kashikar-Zuck, PhD, both well-established and senior clinical researchers. The chief executive & administrative body of PORTICO will be a 7-member Executive Committee (EC) composed of Drs. Brunner and Kashikar-Zuck and 5 highly accomplished scientists who will serve as the Director and Associate Director/s of the Methodology Core & Patient Assessment Resource Core. The EC will be supported by an Internal Advisory Committee, External Advisory Committee and Pilot and Feasibility study committee.
The specific aims of the AC are (1) Provision of executive and scientific leadership for the efficient conduct and dissemination of innovative team science in PMSKD, (2) Development of an Outreach Program to promote interdisciplinary clinical research in PMSKD locally and nationally and (3) Provision of opportunities to test new ideas by creating and managing a Pilot & Feasibility Studies Program to fortify the goals of PORTICO. The AC will be responsible for focusing PORTICOs services, innovation and educational offerings to be complementary to those that already exist within the rich research environment within Cincinnati Children's Hospital and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and national resources and research networks to which the AC leadership is well connected. For the AC, we have developed a robust leadership plan, along with plans for communication, management and evaluation of the activities and resources of PORTICO. In addition, the AC will manage the outreach program, work to enhance the research community to support novel and innovative work by established and early career investigators to advance the field of PMSKD research.
