How do we measure success in research? Is it determined strictly by study results? Or is there something else to be measured, something more subtle? It has been said that translational science is only as successful as your collaborations are with other researchers and the community-at-large. Without effective collaborations, there is no translational research. No bench to bedside. No prototype to device. No beaker to pill. In other words, without long lasting collaborations we're back to doing business as usual.
We think it's important to highlight those translational and clinical research studies that we see as our success stories. This is only the beginning of what we hope will be an enduring collaborative effort. And the end to doing business as usual.
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Tufts CTSI Scholar Studies Variation in Hospitals' Infection Rates for Obstetric Patients
Like most expectant mothers, Dr. Sarah Goff got advice from family and friends about prenatal care and childbirth. However, as a pediatrician and internist at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA and an Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, her instinct was to research that advice by exploring the scientific literature. This inspired her to learn more about maternal infections related to labor and delivery in hospitals across the country.
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Helping Patients Make Informed Choices About Arthritis
More than 10 million Americans suffer from knee osteoarthritis (OA), the most common cause of disability in the United States. While there is currently no cure for knee OA, there are a variety of treatment options, including acetaminophen, NSAIDs, and steroids. Which interventions work best? Raveendhara Bannuru, MD, a PhD student in the Clinical and Translational Science Program at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, is conducting research to find out.
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Tufts Researchers Find Vitamin D may be associated with Diabetes
What if you could decrease the risk of diabetes by taking a vitamin? With the incidence of diabetes on the rise, such a low-cost intervention will have an important impact on public health. Researchers at Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center have been studying the relationship between vitamin D and type 2 diabetes for several years, and published new findings in early 2012.
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Building Healthier Communities through Collaboration
In November 2012, the Tufts CTSI Aligning Researchers and Communities for Health (ARCH) team partnered with Harvard Catalyst (the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center), the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Planet MassCONECT Institute for Community Health Program Planning (iCHPP) to host a Health Policy Workshop for community leaders from five Community Health Network Areas (CHNAs) and participants of ARCH’s
Building Your Capacity: Advancing Research through Community Engagement Program (BYC).
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Chance Encounters, Strong Collaborations
For several years, Tufts CTSI has enjoyed a strong collaboration with Boston's Museum of Science. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Museum's multimedia kiosk focusing on translational research at Tufts.
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Empowering Immigrant Domestic Violence Survivors through CBPR
Program Manager Sujata Ghosh MSc, MSW, and her research team at the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood had never participated in a research fellowship program. That was until they were notified of their acceptance in 2011 into Tufts CTSI’s Building Your Capacity (BYC): Advancing Research through Community Engagement Program.
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Transparency: Does it Improve the Value of Our Hospital Care?
During the past decade, the public’s desire to know about hospital performance and pricing has resulted in an increasingly vocal debate as to whether such transparency actually has had an effect on health outcomes, i.e. improved health care, or cost. In July 2009, Peter Lindenauer, MD, MSC participated in a series of meetings organzied by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies to discuss these issues.
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Understanding your Capacity: Utilizing Community Resources to Maximize Research Scope
Designing an innovative research project isn't just about building your resources; it's also about understanding and maximizing the resources you already have. Rachael Bowers, LICSW, can certainly attest to this. Her participation in Tufts CTSI's Building Your Capacity (BYC): Advancing Research Through Community Engagement program resulted in the creation of a novel research project which was recently mentioned in the New York Times.
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Using Enzymes to Reverse Kidney Disease
Imagine that a bacterial enzyme that digests protein in your throat and intestines could also be used to treat and possibly reverse one of the most deadly and common kidney diseases. That’s exactly what three researchers, bridging Tufts Medical Center’s gastroenterology division and Tufts Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, collectively imagined and are trying to find out.
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