Thursday, January 2, 2025
1/2/2025
Abstract/Summary In 2020, Alabama and Mississippi had the highest stroke mortality in the US, each with a rate of 54.5 per 100,000 population. Over the last five years, the Stroke Belt StrokeNet (SBSN) including the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and its partner institutions, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), the University of South Alabama (USA), and Children’s of Alabama (COA) successfully advanced the stroke system of care and science of stroke treatment in a minority population of at-risk patients in the heart of the underserved Stroke Belt region of the United States. The SBSN will continue to benefit from its 1) established infrastructure, 2) basic science and clinical stroke expertise, and 3) stroke clinical trial experience. Established infrastructure included the recently expanded UAB Neurology Research Unit (NRU) that facilitates study activation, conduct, and pre-/post-award management and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), supported by an NIH CTSA award (UL1 TR001417) and an associated CCTS Partner Network including UMMC and USA, which offers faculty and trainees access to their Training Academy, Project Panels, clinical populations and samples, and Research Commons. The CCTS provided training to our RCC and our partner site investigators and coordinators as well as coordinator support for Stroke Net trials through its Clinical Research Support Program. The SBSN includes a very large potential pool of RCT co-investigators that offer extraordinary depth and breadth of expertise and experience in investigations of acute treatment, prevention and recovery, as well as collaborators in basic and translational science in stroke, neuroimaging, epidemiology, statistics, stroke systems of care, multi-site programs, and health disparities. We have extensive experience in stroke recovery with specific expertise in stroke-related aphasia recovery/rehabilitation, TMS and imaging, and motor recovery; and in stroke systems of care / implementation science. The SBSN has a track record of successful enrollment in stroke clinical trials across the Stroke Net spectrum and inclusion of underrepresented and minority populations. Over the last 5 years, the SBSN has enrolled 120 subjects in Stroke Net treatment, recovery, and prevention studies, ranking 16th among RCCs over this period. SBSN has successfully included underrepresented and minority populations with 37.6% black subjects enrolled, putting us 3rd among the 29 RCCs. Over the last 5 years, the SBSN has matured and demonstrated the capacity to improve as a network. This includes the addition of research coordinators to better support trial conduct, adoption of a more rigorous and structured daily, weekly, monthly, and annual approach to network activities, the willingness to drop nonproductive satellites, and the introduction of randomization-based satellite incentive payments. In this application, we endeavor to improve our already strong program, including the addition of the Birmingham VA Medical Center as a new partner, a focused effort to ensure the best possible data quality, and enhancement of our Internal Advisory Committee to include community as well as academic representation.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).