Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, MetroHealth collaborate on research to benefit community
CLEVELAND, Sept. 18, 2007 – The National Institutes of Health today announced that it has awarded $64 million to Case Western Reserve University, in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth Medical Center, to become part of a national consortium designed to transform how clinical and translational research is conducted, ultimately enabling researchers to provide new treatments more efficiently and quickly to patients.
The consortium, funded through NIH’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs), was formed in 2006 with an initial 12 academic health centers located nationwide.
The ultimate goal of the CTSA in Cleveland is to provide full service and integrated clinical translational research capability within the Cleveland community that will improve the health of patients in Northeast Ohio through patient-based research.
“We will capitalize on the existing strength of research at Case Western Reserve University in partnership with our hospital colleagues, to ultimately provide full service and integrated clinical translational research to improved the health of all of our patients and community” said Pamela B. Davis, M.D., Ph.D., dean and vice president for medical affairs of the School of Medicine and principal investigator on the CTSA.. “When it is fully operational, the CTSA will offer each research participant resources that span the range of support for technology-intensive studies that require the resource of our Academic Medical Centers, to local practices, and to the Cleveland community itself.”
The CTSA will be awarded to Case Western Reserve University and three of its hospital affiliates, the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth Medical Center, and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, including three existing GCRC facilities, a successful multidisciplinary institutional K12 program, substantial technological and statistical core facilities that currently exist in silos, and the institutions’ famous practice-based research networks.
In addition, the partners will create new resources, including community partnership resources, a new coordinated bioinformatics infrastructure, a new M.D-Ph.D. program in clinical research, and coordinated resources in bioethics and regulatory support. An academic home for clinical research, the Center for Clinical Investigation, directed by Davis, will provide the career development support necessary for clinical investigators.
Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth Medical Center cover 90 percent of the medical care delivered in the seven-county area of Northeast Ohio, offering a wealth of clinical research opportunities. In addition, excellent programs based within the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, School of Dental Medicine and the Case School of Engineering, as well as those in the School of Medicine and its hospital partners reach into the community at many sites, some of which will become study sites in the CTSA.
“Translational and clinical research are the pathways linking new knowledge to medical advances to benefit our patients,” said Richard A. Rudick, Vice Chairman, Neurological Institute at the Cleveland Clinic who serves as the CTSAs co-principal investigator. “The CTSA will transform the clinical research enterprise in Cleveland by training leaders for the nation’s clinical research enterprise by promoting collaborative research efforts across our region and by developing advanced research infrastructure.”
The CTSA initiative grew out of the NIH commitment to re-engineer the clinical research enterprise, one of the key objectives of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Funding for the CTSA comes from redirecting existing clinical and translational programs, including Roadmap funds. When fully implemented in 2012, the initiative is expected to provide more than $570 million over five years to 60 academic health centers.