CTSA Ansible – December 2020

THE SPOTLIGHT | WHAT’S NEW | GET INVOLVED | CONSORTIUM CORNER

Mike’s Blog December 2020

A Full Cycle

We have now completed a full cycle of virtual CTSA Program meetings where we had the opportunity to share each other’s presence – from a healthy and safe distance. Remarkably, during such a challenging year, we have managed to remain engaged and maintain quality and participation in our meetings under these “new normal” virtual gatherings.

Summarizing a meeting with so many highlights is no easy task, and this short blog cannot cover the depth, breadth of discussions that took place last month including the more than 12 hours of meeting time, saved in over 7,000 Megabytes (7 GB) of presentations.

First, with almost 800 registered and virtual sessions holding ~250 to ~500 participants, it was key to develop an agenda, presentations and interactive breakout sessions to maintain the right level of engagement and enthusiasm while keeping us wanting – to listen and contribute – more. (To Access Full Blog – Click Here)

THE SPOTLIGHT

NCATS and JCTS Released a Themed Issue on Clinical and Translational Science to Improve Rural Health

Last month, Drs. Kurilla and Austin guest-edited a themed issue of the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science focused on Clinical and Translational Science to Improve Rural Health. This special issue seeks to advance our knowledge of clinical and translational science in addressing rural health featuring articles from researchers that have turned observations in the laboratory, clinic, and community into interventions that improve the health of individuals and the public — from diagnostics and therapeutics to medical procedures and behavioral changes. The editorial highlights the program’s role in addressing rural public health: “By placing increased and intentional emphasis on innovative translational science approaches to longstanding rural health disparities” and “reducing the disproportionate burden of disease on rural populations, and thus make the vision of rural health equity a reality.”

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WHAT’S NEW

Community Engagement at CTSA Hubs During COVID-19

NCATS recently launched a new Community Engagement webpage (CE) showcasing COVID-19 CE activities taking place at CTSA Hubs. The goal is to have a one-stop-shop with up-to-date information about activities underway that are making a difference in communities around the nation during this pandemic. The new CE webpage includes information about studies of treatments to improve outcomes, (sero) prevalence studies to gain a better understanding of the virus and its distribution, RADx-Up initiatives, CEAL, community engagement tools and other activities where the CTSA program is having significant impact. We recommend visiting the page!

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From Insights to Action

From Insights to Action – a resource for hubs looking for ways to increase the diversity of their clinical science workforce.

Looking for new strategies for your KL2 or TL1 program? Are you worried about a lack of diversity and inclusion within your institution? How are you ensuring the diversity of the clinical science workforce? Not sure where to start? From Insights to Action (FITA) is a collection of actionable questions inspired by hubs’ stories of ongoing progress and success in the Careers in Clinical & Translational Research metric.

This resource is divided into six primary sections, each represents a strategy followed by a stimulating set of questions within subtopics. We encourage hubs to review this resource as an impetus for pointed discussions about equity, diversity, and inclusion. We hope that you are inspired to extend these conversations to your internal partners, as well as external partners, new collaborators and your local communities.

“The From Insights to Action resource provides a summary of accumulated years of experience, dedication, and passion by the CTSA Program…” – NCATS

Read It Here >

Informatics Community Using EHR Data to Answer COVID-19 Questions: Featuring the Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) & Critical Care/Ventilation/Multi-organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) Domain Teams

The National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) is open for research with over 2 million patients and 2 billion rows of data from more than 35 sites. Nineteen multidisciplinary Domain Teams composed of clinical and subject matter experts, statisticians, informaticists, and machine learning specialists are addressing the most pressing clinical questions. N3C data can be utilized to understand COVID-19’s impact on health, facilitate the collection of pilot data for grant submissions, train algorithms on larger datasets, and use tools for large-scale COVID-19 data. In this issue, we feature the Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) and the Critical Care/Ventilation/Multi-organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) Clinical Domain Teams.

Apply to Host a CLIC Supported Virtual Un-Meeting

Both the Center for Leading Innovation and Collaboration (CLIC) and Trial Innovation Center (TIN) are redesigning their websites as we enter 2021.

The TIN has already implemented its updated TIN website, including a new logo and color scheme. The navigation bar is now at the top of the page and top visited sections of the website are featured in the What Can The Trial Innovation Network Do For You? Network Educational Webinars are in a new location, feature the next upcoming event in all categories, and also include the previously hosted event with a link to the archived video recording and slides. All upcoming events and archived webinars will continue to be posted on the Events page.

The CLIC website redesign will go live on December 15th. The “new-look” website maintains the same functionality but with a cleaner, more user-friendly look. Hub activities and stories will still be highlighted on the homepage, plus the most up-to-date announcements and Tweets from around the consortium. The group pages have been modified so the content you need is more accessible and the layout more intuitive. The new dynamic top tags filters enable you to easily search for trending content on the neatly-organized directory pages. Experience the new design and share your feedback at contact@clic-ctsa.org.

Apply to Host a CLIC Supported Virtual Un-Meeting

CLIC is currently accepting applications from CTSA Program hubs interested in holding their own virtual Un-Meeting on a topic of their choice. The selected application will receive CLIC support in hosting their virtual Un-Meeting in early 2021, including planning guidance, high level coordination and materials from CLIC, as well as the necessary resources to virtually host the meeting. Application Deadline is December 15, 2020.

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Exceptions to Use of a Single IRB During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (NOT-OD-21-006)

The purpose of this Notice is to provide information to the extramural research community regarding NIH implementation of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP)’s determination of Exception to the Single IRB Review Requirements for Certain HHS-Conducted or -Supported Cooperative Research Activities Subject to the 2018 Requirements During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency. Applicants, offerors, and recipients proposing or conducting NIH-funded research studies subject to the 2018 requirements for the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (also known as the “Common Rule”) and its cooperative research provision (45 CFR 46.114(b)) and that are ongoing or initially reviewed by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency, as declared by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services at https://www.phe.gov/emergency/news/healthactions/phe/Pages/2019-nCoV.aspx, may request an exception to the use of a single IRB.

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Support Research and Capacity Building Efforts Related to Bioethical Issues (NOSI-OD-21-020)

This NOSI is requesting applications for administrative supplements to support 1) research on bioethical issues to develop or support the development of an evidence base that may inform future policy directions, and/or 2) certain efforts to develop or augment bioethics research capacity. Applicants may propose to supplement parent awards focused on bioethics or to add a component related to bioethics to a parent award in which bioethics was not the focus. Note that applications must be within the scope of the parent award. NCATS is interested in research on ethical issues that cross disease domains and span the translational research spectrum. NCATS encourages collaboration between translational researchers and bioethics researchers on projects addressing ethical challenges in moving discoveries from laboratory, clinic, and community into interventions that improve health. Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent: PA-20-272 – Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional) Applications due: March 5, 2021 by 5:00PM local time of applicant organization.

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Extended Guidance for Applicants Preparing Applications During the COVID-19 Pandemic (NOT-OD-21-026)

The purpose of this Notice is to extend the guidance below for applicants preparing applications during the COVID-19 pandemic (NOT-OD-21-122) until further notice.
NIH grant applications should NOT include contingency plans that would outline steps needed to recover from temporary, emergency situations, or institutional return-to-the-workplace plans, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contingency plans will not be considered in peer review but, if needed, COVID-19 contingency plans will be requested and carefully considered by NIH staff before funding.

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