K12 Program at the Southwest Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Innovation (SW CACTI)

University Of New Mexico Health Scis Ctr, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

The Institutional Career Development Program (K12) of the Southwest Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Innovation (SW CACTI) will expand the cohort of creative and innovative scientists (both scholars and preceptor/mentors) who span the breadth of clinical translational science (CTS) to serve the needs of the U.S. Southwest (SW). The SW, anchored by the states of New Mexico (NM) and Arizona (AZ), encompass a unique geographic and demographic domain within the U.S., with distinct and unique communities. Both states share health and wellness needs that are unique to the region and accentuated within our border communities. The SW region is largely rural, posing significant barriers to the dissemination and implementation (D&I) of healthcare solutions in the face of a shortage of translational scientists and scattered resources to train them. To address this need, SW CACTI aggregates resources and infrastructure by connecting the adjoining state campuses of University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences Center (HSC) Clinical Translational Science Center (CTSC) and University of Arizona (UArizona) Health Sciences (UAHS) Clinical Translational Research Institute (CTRI) as the two leading academic medical centers in NM and AZ. Together, the SW CACTI K12 program is positioned to train a strong group of translational scientists focused on identifying the gaps in care, creating innovative solutions and implementing methods to deliver those breakthroughs to rural groups and other populations in need of access to medical care in the SW region. The joint SW CACTI K12 Program will leverage the synergistic training elements of UNM HSC CTSC and UAHS CTRI to improve mentoring and accelerate scholar time to independence. SW CACTI K12 will achieve the overarching goal of increasing the number of diverse and impactful translational scientists in the SW with the following aims. Aim 1: Develop SW CACTI K12 scholars into translational scientists with tailored trainings appropriate for K12 scholar projects. Aim 2: Provide responsive mentoring to enlarge the pool and breadth of mentors available to K12 scholars. Aim 3: Expand collaborative opportunities for SW CACTI K12 scholars between UNM HSC and UAHS to increase networking capacity and enhance resources for scholars. These aims will promote the career development of SW CACTI K12 scholars in translational science that ranges from pre-clinical translational research to public health and dissemination and implementation of new technologies and medical interventions. Our long-term objective is to enhance and improve the health of the population of the SW and nationally.