(taken from the application): This application from Duke University is in response to the competing continuation of the Coordinating Center (CC) for the Centers for Education & Research on Therapeutics (CERTs). During the first three years of this demonstration project, the CC has worked closely with the Project Officer, the Steering Committee (SC), the Chair and the Research Centers (RCs) to establish an organization that has given CERTs the needed administrative support, but concurrently has played a major role in facilitating synergy in the research and education missions that extends far beyond the sum of the individual RCs. The CERTs entity has established an international reputation based on its research successes and its prominent role in linking policy decisions to its research. As research findings have matured from the CERTs RCs, the CC has helped the RCs translate them into pragmatic constructs that have influenced practice and policy through education and dissemination. Also, with the SC and the RCs, the CC has been critical in bringing in further resources that have greatly expanded the research and dissemination capabilities of the CERTs. The location of the CC at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) has given it unparalleled access to an array of capabilities across therapeutic specialties and CC services. Consistent with the major CERTs construct of leveraging through public-private partnerships, the DCRI is contributing """"""""in kind"""""""" access to facility and staff because of the common goals identified between the CERTs and DCRI. Over the next four years, the CC will expand its five functions: administrative support, enhancing research synergy, education and dissemination, program evaluation, and business support/fundraising. The application describes the manner in which it proposes to accomplish far more than could be expected with the funding through special projects funded by AHRQ, in-kind support from the DCRI, continued success in competing for government-funded programs, and private support. All efforts will be conducted according to stringent principles set by the CERTs SC, led by the administrative expertise of the CC. By continuing to enhance the CC's broad network of academic centers, government agencies, advocacy groups, provider groups, and the medical products industry, it will play an organizing role in guiding therapeutics with evidence from research that will approve public health.
| Platt, Richard; Madre, Leanne; Reynolds, Robert et al. (2008) Active drug safety surveillance: a tool to improve public health. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 17:1175-82 |
