NIH starts clinical research consortium
The U.S. National Institutes of Health is forming a consortium to transform how the nation's clinical and translational research is conducted.
The consortium begins with 12 academic health centers located across the nation. An additional 52 centers will receive planning grants to help them prepare applications to join the group.
When fully implemented in 2012, about 60 institutions will be linked to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science.
"The development of this consortium represents the first systematic change in our approach to clinical research in 50 years," said NIH Director Elias Zerhouni. "Working together, these sites will serve as discovery engines that will improve medical care by applying new scientific advances to real world practice.
The first set of five-year grants will be awarded: Columbia University Health Sciences, Duke University, the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, the Oregon Health & Science University, Rockefeller University, Yale University, the Texas Health Science Center, and the universities of California-Davis, California-San Francisco, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and Rochester.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International