As one of the nation's leading academic research centers, the University of Pittsburgh has both anopportunity and an obligation to take the inherent risks associated with reengineering a successful researchenterprise to undertake a transformative initiative that will result in the development and advancement ofclinical and translational science as a distinct discipline in western Pennsylvania. The University is committedto transforming its culture, environment, and structure to achieve this goal by forming the Clinical andTranslational Science Institute (CTSI). The CTSI will serve as the integrative academic home for clinical andtranslational scientists across the University's six health sciences schools; Carnegie Mellon University; theUniversity of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), one of the nation's largest and most financially successfulacademic health care systems; and the region. The CTSI's primary focus is to develop, nurture, and supporta cadre of clinical and translational scientists by building on the University's existing clinical research trainingprograms (Roadmap K12, K30) to establish a comprehensive program with activities ranging from earlyresearch exposure for high school students to advanced doctoral programs. Through 'integration and :innovation,' the CTSI will excel in the development of new biomedical knowledge and the translation of thatknowledge from the basic and preclinical research settings to individuals, communities, and health practice.The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh's General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and the four sites of theUniversity of Pittsburgh GCRC will be reengineered, integrated, and augmented by new CTSI communitybasedand minority health focused centers to develop efficient, accessible, and widely used participant andclinical interaction resources. The CTSI Center for Clinical and Translational Informatics, which is developingtranslational research informatics tools for the NCI Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid Initiative, will infuseinformatics tools into the entire lifecycle of clinical research studies and develop an online collaborativeresearch community. Innovative interdisciplinary research initiatives will be developed through the ten CTSIresource cores and translated to health practice via a novel CTSI community partnership program andthrough centralization of UPMC's extensive clinical networks. The resulting transformations in the institution,scientist, research, and health practice will improve health locally, regionally, and nationally.
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