The South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute (SCTR) - Since 2009, the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute (SCTR) has transformed the research environment across South Carolina (SC), facilitating the translation of innovative science into clinical practice. Headquartered at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), SCTR has engaged community members and other stakeholders and created statewide collaborations to address SC’s priority healthcare issues. Most (>75%) of SC is rural, with medical provider shortage areas in all 46 counties, and characterized by poor health outcomes and less healthy behaviors. We have been steadfast in our mission to engage communities statewide, increasing research access in rural areas amid the expansion of the MUSC Health Network. Over the next seven years, SCTR will strengthen its outreach to rural areas, leveraging our strengths with the MUSC Telehealth Center of Excellence and collaborations with SC State University, and the University of SC. With a focus on innovation, implementation, and impact, we will develop, demonstrate, and disseminate technologies and outreach strategies to improve the health of those we serve. We will build on prior successes and introduce innovations to expand translational science across SC via the following aims: Aim 1. Provide an agile, responsive, and collaborative infrastructure that catalyzes community-engaged, patient-focused clinical and translational science (CTS). Aim 2. Support further development of a clinical and translational research (CTR) workforce enabled with the knowledge and skills to effectively enhance research participation across all South Carolina populations, ensure alignment between research and community health priorities, and implement clinical discoveries that improve the health of South Carolinians. Aim 3. Remove barriers to implementation of efficacious treatments and practices by creating and adapting scientific and operational innovations and providing resources that increase the quality, safety, efficiency, effectiveness, and informativeness of clinical and translational research. Aim 4. Facilitate and support innovative research projects that address significant CTS roadblocks through multidisciplinary team science. As SC’s academic home for CTS, SCTR supports innovative, efficient, multidisciplinary research and is integrated with a healthcare system that spans the state. Our mission is to catalyze CTS innovations that lead to more efficient translation of biomedical breakthroughs into interventions that improve individual and public health. We will work within SCTR, with collaborators across SC, and with the CTSA Consortium to achieve our mission and realize our vision for improved human health for SC and beyond.
