From the 1990s to today, a growing number of babies are exposed to an opioid before birth and have withdrawal soon after, a condition called neonatal abstinence syndrome. They have painful symptoms and may need to be in the hospital for weeks. Before 2017, there was no research on which medicines best calm these babies. … Continued
Dr. Paola Sebastiani, Director of the Center for Quantitative Methods and Data Science at the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts Medical Center, and Director of the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Center at Tufts CTSI, was interviewed by Inform magazine for an article titled, “The Fountain of Youth Could Be on Your Plate.” The … Continued
Among the most important benefits of genomic sequencing technologies is their potential to speed the diagnosis of critically ill infants suspected to have a genetic disorder. Studies such as the Genomic Medicine in Ill Infants and Newborns (GEMINI) Study, co-led by Tufts CTSI Associate Director Jonathan Davis, MD, show that clinical genomics can have high … Continued
Informed consent forms are long and complex, making it hard for potential research participants to understand the study. Did you know that investigators from Tufts CTSI-affiliated institutions can now access the NEW Key Information Checklist? The Informed Consent Key Information Checklist is a new validated and reliable tool that investigators can use to assess … Continued
Dr. Lisa Welch, Denise Daudelin, Lisa Serrano, Siyu Chen, Alyssa Cabrera, and Erin Gibson are the authors of Assessing Impact on Health, Health Care, and Public Support: The Evolution of a CTSA Hub’s Evaluation and Continuous Improvement Program, published in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. The paper focuses on: moving beyond traditional outputs … Continued
The Tufts University Affiliate of Cochrane US will host a three-day online Systematic Review Standard Author Training Series on November 6, November 13, and November 20. Topics will include: Overview of The Cochrane Collaboration, Defining the Research, Developing a Protocol, Systematic Literature Search, Study Selection, Critical Appraisal, Risk of Bias, Data Extraction, Analysis and Interpretation, GRADE Evidence and Findings Review, RevMan Software, Rayyan, and Use of AI in Systematic Reviews. … Continued
Students, clinicians, engineers, and visionaries from every discipline are invited to explore the frontiers of pediatric innovation at the first Hood Pediatric Innovation Summit on Thursday, October 23 at the Museum of Science, Boston. The program will feature innovation leaders who will provide perspectives and insights from multiple disciplines including: Emerging Technology, Economics, Education, Policy, and Patient Advocacy. In … Continued
Applications are now being accepted for two NIH mentored career-development opportunities offered through Tufts CTSI: the CTSI K12 in Translational Science and the Tufts Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Program (BIRCWH). The awards provide research training, funds for protected research time and some research supplies, and a structured program to enhance and prepare … Continued
The Small Grants to Advance Translational Science (S-GATS) Program offers pilot awards up to $50K for research with the potential to improve health through innovations in clinical and translational science. The program supports projects aimed at overcoming persistent barriers to translation across various diseases and health conditions, while also encouraging the exploration of novel opportunities and … Continued
Tufts CTSI’s Clinical Trial Design Labs are a powerful demonstration of Tufts CTSI’s mission to support broadly engaged team science at the earliest stages of research. Design Labs bring together experts from across the intervention development pathway to support innovative study teams. Teams with an original clinical trial idea are guided to think about the … Continued
Stay tuned for more information as we are preparing for the launch!
Congratulations to the nine participants in the Fall 2022 Blue Star program for completing their training on November 16!
Congratulations to the inaugural cohort of the Blue Star Investigator Certificate Program. On November 17, 11 clinicians from across Tufts Medical Center completed this eight-week program designed to develop junior investigators’ skills in the nuts and bolts of designing and running a clinical trial. Departments represented by the learners included: anesthesiology, endocrinology, hematology/oncology, Woman, Mother … Continued
When the plans were announced for Encore Boston Harbor, a luxury resort and casino located about five miles from Logan Airport, there was immediate concern from Boston’s Chinatown community. Residents and neighborhood organizations felt a new casino would only serve to exacerbate an existing problem in their community: gambling addiction. Carolyn Rubin, EdD, MA, Director … Continued
Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Stakeholder Expert Panel (SEP) members met recently with Karen Freund, MD, MPH to chat about her recent publication, Racial Differences in Insurance Stability After Health Insurance Reform (Med Care. 2019 Apr;57(4):256-261). The discussion included six SEP members and was moderated by Robert Sege, MD, PhD, Tufts CTSI’s Lead … Continued
What do scientists do, and how do they do it? The Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation (MassBioEd) helps underrepresented minority middle- and high-school students answer this question through its Aligned Curricular & Career Experiences for Secondary Science Program (ACCESS) at Match Charter Public School in Boston. Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) has pledged to … Continued
On May 6, members of Tufts CTSI’s Stakeholder Expert Panel launched Research Results: Stakeholder Conversations, a series of discussions with Principal Investigators (PIs) about their published research. Panel members review journal articles written by researchers affiliated with Tufts CTSI, select the studies most interesting and applicable to them, and then invite the PIs to talk about their … Continued
From language barriers to differences in cultural norms, it can be challenging for members of minority communities to access proper health care. A specific area of difficulty lies in diagnosing children with autism. Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician Christina Sakai, MD, along with Pediatric Psychologist Christina Mulé, PhD, set out to address the impact of Chinese culture on diagnosing … Continued
For Apolo Cátala, community engagement is a way of life. As Farm Manager of Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation (NDC)’s OASIS on Ballou, he is committed to engaging people in healthy, affordable nutrition through urban agriculture. “Our mission is to create food access in a multi-dimensional way by encouraging people to make a better connection … Continued
Alissa Dangel, MD, is hoping to change the way pre-term breech babies are delivered. After working for nearly a decade as an attending physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts Medical Center, she is now pursuing her interest in research as a TL1 Clinical Research Fellow in Tufts CTSI’s Clinical and Translational Science Graduate Program. … Continued
Alison Brown, PhD, MS is a researcher on the rise. In May 2017, immediately after earning her PhD in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, she enrolled in Tufts CTSI’s Clinical and Translational Science Graduate Program as a certificate student and a Tufts CTSI TL1 Postdoctoral Fellow, working with … Continued
Community leaders, researchers, clinicians, students, and neighborhood residents gathered in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 6 to talk about stress. The 4th Annual Asian Health Symposium, In Pursuit of Health and Wellness: Addressing the Impact of Stress in Asian Immigrant Communities was presented by Tufts CTSI and local community partner organizations. All are members of Addressing Disparities in Asian Populations through Translational Research (ADAPT).
More than 90 community leaders, researchers, clinicians, students, and neighborhood residents gathered in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood on December 6 to talk about working together to improve Asian health. The 3rd Annual Asian Health Symposium: From Collecting Data to Collective Impact was presented by Tufts CTSI and local community organizations. All are members of Addressing Disparities … Continued
Since the inception of Tufts CTSI, we have worked to break down silos within and across our institutions, build relationships, and develop a sense of common purpose across the research enterprise. In June 2015, our Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) signature program, led by John Wong, MD (Director) and Thomas W. Concannon, PhD (Associate Director), made … Continued
Can a dog with a knee injury help to inform the treatment of a person with an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear? Veterinarians and physicians using the One Health approach to translational research think so. One Health, a signature program at Tufts CTSI led by Director Lisa Freeman, DVM, PhD, DACVN, acknowledges the importance of the evolutionary and ecological links between … Continued
Sarah Goff, MD and her team at Baystate Medical Center recently received a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award for Project ACCCES: A Collaboration to develop Capacity for Community-Engaged Research in Springfield. This project seeks to build a coalition of stakeholders and investigators who will be prepared to examine health inequities faced by at-risk populations … Continued
What’s the key to speeding the process of discovery and development of solutions that improve human health? One critical element is multi-site collaboration to quickly enroll subjects into clinical research studies; however, the traditional Institutional Review Board (IRB) review process to establish these studies can be complex and time-consuming. Harvard Catalyst (the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center), in partnership with Tufts CTSI, … Continued
“Comparative effectiveness research and patient/family engagement are changing health care,” says Dr. Leyenaar. “We’re giving families a real voice to express their priorities and preferences, and this generates new knowledge about patients who may benefit most from particular treatments or processes.”
For Alison Sullivan, MD, MS, the Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) Graduate Program at the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was the perfect way to marry her passion for emergency medicine with her blossoming interest in research. Shortly after completing her residency in 2011, she enrolled in the CTS Master’s Program at the urging … Continued
When Mihaela Stefan, MD, MS first came to Baystate Medical Center in 2005 as a physician, conducting research was not part of her plan. Eight years later, she is a PhD candidate in the Clinical and Translational Science Program at the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the 2013 recipient of the prestigious Lasagna … Continued
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. Doing so, … Continued
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 … Continued
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 … Continued
Connecting researchers and community members to improve the public’s health is a primary focus at Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Tufts CTSI), and Aligning Researchers and Communities for Health (ARCH) specializes in fostering those conversations. In November 2012, the Tufts CTSI ARCH team partnered with Harvard Catalyst (the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center), … Continued
Scientific collaboration can be the product of a chance encounter. Two people meet, find they have something in common—research interests, health policy views—and decide to work together. Take, for example, the simple beginning of the ongoing collaboration between Tufts CTSI and the Museum of Science. Peggy Newell, Vice Provost of Tufts University, was talking at … Continued
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 (PDF). … Continued
Comparison shopping has long been a trusted buyer’s strategy in this country. Who amongst us wouldn’t pay less for something if we could get it cheaper? But, can the same be said for medical care? During the past decade, the public’s desire to know about hospital performance and pricing has resulted in an increasingly vocal … Continued
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, a pediatric social worker at the Dimock Center in Roxbury, MA, can certainly attest to this. Her participation in Tufts CTSI’s Building Your Capacity (BYC): Advancing Research Through Community Engagement … Continued