$15.6 Million Grant Targets Education, Training and Clinical and Translational Research
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center joined an elite group of nearly 60 academic medical institutions across the country this month in a collaborative mission to fast-track research discoveries that bring better preventative and treatment solutions.
As a new member of the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium, Wake Forest Baptist received a $15.6 million grant that will be used, in efforts with other collaborative members, to impact patient care, generate best practices and help transform health care choices and providers.
“Being part of this prestigious program is a game-changer in many ways for our Medical Center,” said John D. McConnell, M.D., CEO, Wake Forest Baptist. “Entry into the CTSA Consortium creates access to a nationwide partnership to generate and apply the best evidence for the collaborative health care choices of patients and providers, driving the process of discovery as a natural outgrowth of patient care, and ensuring innovation, quality, safety and value in health care.”
Partnering with the nation’s top researchers means Wake Forest Baptist patients will have access to more clinical trials, some of which are available only to members of the consortium.
“Our CTSA application reflects the resolve of Wake Forest Baptist to become a leading “learning health care system” at the forefront of translating scientific discoveries to impact patient care,” said Edward Abraham, M.D., dean, Wake Forest School of Medicine. “We embrace the National Academy of Medicine’s (formerly the Institute of Medicine) definition of a learning health care system as one that delivers continuous, real-time improvement in care effectiveness and efficiency by aligning science and informatics, patient-clinician partnerships, incentives and culture.”
The collaboration will be led by principal investigators, King Li, M.D., senior associate dean for clinical and translational research and Stephen Kritchevsky, Ph.D., associate dean, research development and director of the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation.
Li will be responsible for strategic planning, operational and fiscal management, integration and oversight of the CTSA. Kritchevsky will oversee the Mentored Career Development Program of the CTSA, part of a national effort to help train the next generation of investigators who can move basic research findings into application for improving health as novel therapies, diagnostics and preventatives.
With the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the CTSA program was launched in 2006 to strengthen and support the entire spectrum of translational research from scientific discovery to improved patient care.
Media Relations
Mac Ingraham: mingraha@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-3487
Shannon Putnam: news@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-4587