NIH awards nearly $23M to University of Chicago for translationa...(lations and the corresponding heterogene...)

One objective of the CTSA program is to eliminate barriers: between academic disciplines, between laboratory and clinical research, and between scientists, doctors and patients. To reach that objective, the program will bring residents of the many diverse neighborhoods surrounding the University into the research process.

The 1.1 million residents of the South Side of Chicago form a diverse but, in many cases, chronically underserved population. The community has high rates of hypertension, diabetes, asthma and other complex diseases. Ten to 15 percent of adults are physically disabled. Fifteen to 20 percent of all births to neighborhood residents are premature. Area residents over age 35 are three times more likely to be hospitalized for complications of diabetes.

Through partnerships between the University and its Medical Center, other health care providers on the South Side -- including Access Community Health Network and Advocate Healthcare -- the CTSA will attempt to overcome these health disparities by improving access to medical care, and raising the standards of care for all those on the South Side.

The University already is home to three separate centers focused on understanding and alleviating health disparities: the NIH-funded Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research, the CDC-funded Center for Health and the Social Sciences, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change.

"The CTSA grant will enable us to take great strides forward together," said Solway.

The national CTSA initiative grew out of a commitment by the NIH to re-engineer the clinical research enterprise, one of the key objectives of the
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