Community Cores

The Community Cores include:

Practice-Oriented Research Translation (PORT)

Under the direction of Judith Fifield, Ph.D., Deputy Director of CICATS, the focus will be on:

• designing, conducting, and disseminating clinical practice oriented research, and
• accelerating the impact of research on direct patient care and the ability of individuals to participate actively in their own health promotion

Consortium

Under the direction of Paul H. Dworkin, M.D., Professor and Chair of Pediatrics, the Consortium will focus on:

• Effectively engaging regional affiliated hospitals and research-oriented community based organizations in research partnerships within CICATS.
• Enabling partnering institutions to serve as key resources for accessing patients and clinical providers in the pursuit of translational and clinical research and trials, including population-based research.
• Enriching the research portfolio and resources of CICATS through incorporating the research missions, resources, and activities of the partnering institutions and organizations.
• Determining the range of options for partnering institutions’ involvement, secure the organizations’ commitments, and detailing the optimal structure and process to best ensure success.
• Facilitating the dissemination of research findings to impact on community practice and encouraging the solicitation of research questions and priorities from community-based partners.

Research Education, Training & Career Development

To support Research Education, Training and Career Development, Susan Reisine Ph.D., Core Director of Research Education, Training & Career Development, will work closely with Anne Kenny, M.D., Associate Core Director, to focus on:

• Expanding the masters program of clinical and translational research to include junior faculty, post-doc researchers and community based researchers and physicians in training;
• Offering a mentored research program for students in grades k-12;
• Offering a T32 research program for doctoral education and training; and
• Offering a senior mentoring program and a graduate medical education scholarship program.

Evaluation and Assessment

Thomas Babor, Ph.D., is the Core Director of the Tracking and Evaluation core of the CICATS.

The evaluation and assessment component of the CICATS consists of scientific, technical, and professional expertise sufficient to provide a systematic process and outcome evaluation of the CICATS components and its overall performance. The evaluation and assessment component addresses the following specific aims:

• Finalizing a detailed plan to evaluate the short-term and long-term goals of the key functions proposed in each CICATS component. The plan includes the evaluation of each key function (i.e., education, clinical science, translational science, informatics, etc.) and supporting structure (i.e., support services, governance structure) as well as the evaluation of the entire CICATS system as a whole;
• Developing a system for tracking participants following program completion of education and training activities to determine success or failure of these programs;
• Collaborating with an External Advisory Committee to monitor all relevant CTSA activities and modify the education, training and career development components, based on process feedback from the evaluation team and appropriate recommendations from the advisory committee;
• Working closely with the national CTSA program to:
• assess institutional change with respect to integration of component functions;
• monitor changes in collaboration and cooperation of departments, schools, and outside institutions in clinical and translational research; and
• provide all data necessary for the national evaluation, including the monitoring of the short-term and long-term performance of trainees and scholars.

The overall performance evaluation of CICATS includes measures to assess successful process indicators such as changes in organizational climate and scientific productivity, as well as global outcomes such as community impact, scientific output, and uptake of evidence-based clinical interventions. Although we will attend to the details of each key function, we will also evaluate the long term impact of the program at the institutional and regional levels by means of an annual survey of stakeholders.