Representatives from across the CCTS Partner Network gathered in Birmingham on Tuesday, Nov. 1, to meet with external advisors for a day that marked a year of “dramatic progress.” The advisors gave CCTS positive marks for its training programs, clinical and research supports, and partnership network. 

The ambitious agenda included presentations on CCTS efforts in relation to national scientific trends, including workforce development, informatics, multisite clinical trials, reproducibility, and results-based accountability. The afternoon focused on regional (Deep South) opportunities CCTS has targeted for broader collaboration within its partner network: community engagement, the health needs of special populations, clinical research and translation, and development of novel drugs, devices, genomic medicine, and overall research excellence.  

CCTS Director Dr. Robert Kimberly thanked the External Advisory Committee (EAC) for its time and attention, saying the past year had been “an adventure” and that the EAC’s feedback would be “extremely helpful as we take our efforts to the next level.” 

CCTS EAC members include cochairs Daniel Ford, MD, MPH, director, Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and Mark K. Drezner, MD, executive director, Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Katherine E. Hartmann, MD, PhD, associate dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist Development, Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research; Patrick Heagerty, PhD, director, Center for Biomedical Statistics, University of Washington Schools of Medicine and Public Health/Institute of Translational Health Sciences; Sundeep Khosla, MD, director and PI, Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science; and Jessica Tenenbaum, PhD, associate director of Bioinformatics, Duke Translational Medicine Institute.