title: Developing Common Metrics for the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs): Lessons Learned.
abstract: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research initiative, funded by the NIH Common Fund and offered through the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program, developed more than 60 unique models for achieving the NIH goal of accelerating discoveries toward better public health. The variety of these models enabled participating academic centers to experiment with different approaches to fit their research environment. A central challenge related to the diversity of approaches is the ability to determine the success and contribution of each model. This paper describes the effort by the Evaluation Key Function Committee to develop and test a methodology for identifying a set of common metrics to assess the efficiency of clinical research processes and for pilot testing these processes for collecting and analyzing metrics. The project involved more than one-fourth of all CTSAs and resulted in useful information regarding the challenges in developing common metrics, the complexity and costs of acquiring data for the metrics, and limitations on the utility of the metrics in assessing clinical research performance. The results of this process led to the identification of lessons learned and recommendations for development and use of common metrics to evaluate the CTSA effort.
authors.affiliation: Data Center, Center for Research on Health Care, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Doris M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Rubio
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Social Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Arthur E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Blank
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dozier
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
authors.forename: Lisle
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hites
authors.affiliation: Data Center, Center for Research on Health Care, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Victoria A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Gilliam
authors.affiliation: Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.affiliation: Clinical and Translational Science Center, University of California Davis, Sacramento, California, USA.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rainwater
authors.affiliation: Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
authors.forename: William M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Trochim
mesh_terms: D001363:Awards and Prizes; D019985:Benchmarking / Q000592:standards; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D028744:Ethics Committees, Research / Q000592:standards; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D010865:Pilot Projects; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013997:Time Factors; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States
keywords: Clinical and Translational Science Awards; clinical research; common metrics; evaluation