A Clear Destination

The Clinical and Translational Science Center at the UNM Health Sciences Center is established to embrace the connection between scientific discovery and clinical applications.

by Luke Frank

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What are the keys to controlled acceleration? The Roadmap Initiative introduced by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) in 2005, indicates solid infrastructure and a clear destination. Over the past decade, the UNM Health Sciences Center (HSC) has been constructing both, and, in the process, has tripled its annual research awards to $123.3 million in fiscal year 2007.

To sustain this velocity, the HSC is merging onto the NIH Roadmap Initiative in part with the development of its Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC). The NIH is supporting the development of such centers to shorten the thoroughfare between biomedical scientific discovery and clinical applications. After all, isn’t a goal of medical discovery to improve public health?

“When you get right down to it, that’s our job—to improve the health of New Mexicans,” says Richard Larson, Health Sciences Center Vice President for Translational Research and Senior Associate Dean for Research at the UNM School of Medicine. “We continue to re-engineer our medical research infrastructure in very specific areas to embrace the NIH’s ‘Bench-to-Bedside’ paradigm, which will accelerate the application of our research results in the community.”

Part of that re-engineering is actively engaging New Mexico’s diverse communities to help further define regional health issues and construct practical biomedical research that translates from the HSC’s emerging Clinical and Translational Science Center to the citizens of New Mexico and beyond. The greater vision is to create community research networks in the state linked through UNM’s CTSC to other regional centers across the country, thus casting a community health system investigative net.

This interdisciplinary effort includes restructuring health sciences educational curricula and inviting community involvement, while assembling progressive research partners and technology, and expanding electronic data storage and cataloguing capabilities.

“We’re well on our way,” says Mark Burge, director of the CTSC. “We’ve created new master’s degree and doctoral programs in Clinical Research specifically, while emphasizing clinical research at all University educational levels—from undergraduate health science and pre-med, to pharmacy and nursing students, to medical residents, fellows, and even junior faculty.”
The CTSC now also supports not only traditional drug trials in the University of New Mexico Hospitals, but a variety of community-based trials throughout the state. An important aspect of these initiatives is the development of a statewide database that centralizes research information for quick, shared access to New Mexico’s biostatistics, research protocols, and study results.

To further cultivate homegrown clinical research and education, an effective telehealth network is evolving in more rural communities. CTSC will utilize this electronic outreach system to deliver the latest technology and medical advances through clinical trials in New Mexico’s communities.

“We are right in line with the NIH’s desire to accelerate the pace of change in biomedical research, delivering health solutions to hospitals and clinics all over the state,” Burge says.

Just how significant is this fundamental shift in NIH’s public health focus? According to the NIH, funding for General Clinical Science Centers (from which the HSC is devolving) will be phased out over the next few years. Only those medical schools that follow the Clinical and Translational Science Center model will be eligible for funding.

“There are 125 medical schools in the U.S.,” Larson says. “There will be approximately fifty Clinical and Translational Science Centers in the NIH program. So fewer than half of the academic health centers will be able to participate.” Such exclusivity means a select few will benefit from a comprehensive research program that delivers new medical advances efficiently to medical practice.

Determined to build a powerful research center, the HSC Office of Research applied for and received a $200,000 CTSC planning grant from the NIH, helping to fund the upgrades to date. The Health Sciences Center was one of 112 schools to apply for the planning grant or the full grant, and was one of 52 applicants awarded planning grants.

“We’re on the short list and are preparing our proposal for a full CTSC grant,” says Paul Roth, UNM Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine.

“We want to participate in meaningful medical research that can be applied right here in New Mexico,” Larson says. “Our Clinical and Translational Science Center will provide that access. As important as the funding component is, we also see this transformation as critical to the health of our communities.”