Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center - Clinical and translational research (CTR) across Harvard is conducted at 17 independent and geographically dispersed institutions, including Harvard Medical School (HMS), Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and 15 HMS-affiliated academic health care centers. Each of these institutions is fiscally and operationally independent with their own governance, faculty, IRB, and electronic health records. Harvard Catalyst (HC) serves as the sole coordinating entity for CTR and has brought these institutions together as a federated CTR network. Since 2008, HC has developed a substantial portfolio of educational and CTR resources to meet the needs of the CTR workforce at Harvard and, when their value has been demonstrated at Harvard, disseminated them to the CTSA consortium. Moving forward, HC’s overarching vision is to partner with our CTR workforce, institutions, and communities to become a living clinical and translational science (CTS) learning laboratory. The CTS learning laboratory will continuously assess and reassess the hub’s CTR strengths and weaknesses, developing and implementing programmatic innovations to improve the efficiency, quality, effectiveness, and impact of CTR. Using the principles and methodologies of CTS and guided by a logic model, HC is committed to achieving these goals and overcoming translational roadblocks. Six translational roadblocks have been prioritized that can be mitigated or overcome: 1) educational resources are not reaching all learners and have been focused on investigators, rather than investigational teams; 2) extensive research resources are frequently invisible and difficult to access; 3) substantial structural and regulatory barriers limit cross-institutional collaborations; 4) research and clinical data need to be connected and their access democratized; 5) CTR workforce has been increasingly challenged by the loss of protected time to support the development of independent investigators; and 6) insufficient mechanisms exist to support implementation of CTR evidence into practice. HC will also focus on better understanding and meeting the needs of early-stage investigators and their teams. Multiple initiatives are proposed to address five specific aims: 1) train and mentor the CTR workforce; 2) connect trainees and CTR teams with HC resources; 3) partner with community stakeholders to improve research participation; 4) democratize health informatics; and 5) use CTS to overcome significant CTR roadblocks. Harvard Catalyst is eager to learn from other CTSA hubs and is committed to dissemination and sharing across the CTSA consortium. The insights derived from employing CTS approaches will be used to overcome translational roadblocks and advance the collective national goal of improving human health.
