CTSA UM1 at Duke University

The mission of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), home to the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) since 2006, is to catalyze translational science in ways that effectively and efficiently bring medical discoveries to society. In the next phase of our CTSA, we are poised to build on established programs and capabilities to markedly increase our impact. However, we are acutely aware of the challenges posed by the increasing doubts about the credibility of medical science. In response to diminished trust in science and medical institutions and driven by our fierce commitment to improve health for all, we will focus the next phase of our CTSA on “Trustworthy Partnerships to Improve Health Through Translational Science.” To ensure that the benefits of clinical and translational research (CTR) are accessible to all, we will center our programs on the foundational principles of trustworthiness and meaningful engagement of partners and the community that include bidirectional communication, shared resources and decision making, attention to balancing power dynamics, and respect for broad expertise and experiences. Together, with our partners and collaborators, we will: (1) catalyze innovations that advance clinical and translational science, (2) cultivate and disseminate a suite of best- in-class research services and resources that enables investigators and partners to conduct efficient, effective research across the translational spectrum, (3) create, nurture, and advance community-partnered research to improve health for all across the lifespan, (4) train and develop an interprofessional clinical and translational research workforce prepared to implement trustworthy research programs that rapidly translate discoveries to practice, and (5) propagate an informatics framework that enhances data access, data transparency, and the trustworthy application of biostatistics, data science, and artificial intelligence. We will study the impact of our efforts and identify effective approaches to facilitate the achievement of improved health for all. We will also implement new procedures for measuring health in our community. We will disseminate generalizable novel approaches and practices throughout the CTSA consortium and beyond, catalyzing efforts to improve health across our nation.