Center for Clinical and Translational Science

The Center for Clinical Translation Science (CCTS) External Advisory Board (EAB) Meeting was held on February 16, 2017. The EAB is led by Dr. Edward Benz, President and CEO, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and is composed of Tesheia H. Johnson, MBA, MHS, Chief Operations Officer, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, and Associate Director of Clinical Research for Yale School of Medicine; Margaret McCabe, PhD, RN, PNP, Director, Nursing Research, Medicine Patient Services at Boston Children’s Hospital; Dr. Emma Anne Meagher, Vice Dean & Chief Clinical Research Officer at University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; Dr. Lloyd Michener, Professor and Chairman, Duke Department of Community and Family Medicine and Director of Duke Center for Community Research; Rebecca Moen, MBA, Chief Administrative Officer at Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute; Dr. Mark Alan Musen, Professor of Medicine (Medical Informatics) and of Biomedical Data Science and Director of Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics and Research at Stanford University; Muredach P. Reilly, MB, MS, Director, Herbert and Florence Irving Professor for Medicine at Columbia University Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research; and Dr. Roger Vaughn, Vice Dean for Academic Advancement Professor, Department of Biostatistics at Columbia University.

During the morning session, the EAB members heard a presentation from Dr. Barry Coller, Director of the CCTS detailing the history of the Center, the current scientific and educational programs, and the plans for the future. The other leaders of the CCTS were present and answered questions from EAB members as they arose. The EAB then split into smaller working groups to focus on specific topics. During the working lunch, Dr. Manish Ponda and Dr. Louis Cohen, both graduates of the CCTS KL2 Clinical Scholars program, presented data from their research projects and described the role the Clinical Scholars Program played in their career development. The meeting closed with the EAB summarizing its findings, and making a number of extremely valuable suggestions to further strengthen the CCTS programs. The Senior Staff of the CCTS has already begun implementing the EAB’s recommendations.

Overall, the EAB congratulated the CCTS on its “exemplary program” that “has impacted a broad community of clinical and translational scientists both locally and nationally.” The committee identified key commendable features of the CCTS, including “the spectrum of subject recruitment initiatives, the incorporation of patients’ preferences into protocol development, the Translational Navigation Program that supports the trainees as they design, plan and execute their research protocols, and efforts that engage scientists with their communities to accelerate translation.” The committee also noted that CCTS has been very effective in actively disseminating its innovations – these included “the graduate tracking survey system; informed consent for next gen sequencing; and the approach to implementing a navigation service to PhD scientists to facilitate translation. The number of publications on the science of innovation is commendable.”