CTSA K12 Program at Wake Forest

Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Wake Forest (WF) Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) joined the CTSA consortium in 2015 with the goal of catalyzing our health system’s transformation into an exemplary Learning Health System (LHS). Since then, we have extended this LHS framework by integrating traditional academic goals of T0-T4 translation, scholarship, and education while also promoting health for all people and the vitality of the communities we serve. We call this evolved vision the Academic Learning Health System (aLHS). Achieving this vision requires scientists with a deep understanding of the translational science process that moves from data to evidence to practice and policy in a continuous cycle. To develop this critical workforce, the CTSI K12 Program will provide a rigorous training program for outstanding and carefully selected interdisciplinary early-career faculty that develops expertise in seven LHS science competency domains identified by the AHRQ/PCORI LHS Learning Collaborative. These competencies support the traits of translational scientists as outlined by the international Translation Together collaborative. The K12 Program builds on our highly successful KL2 Program, which to date has trained 28 translational scientists who received 55 subsequently funded awards and published 539 manuscripts; many of them have advanced to become leaders in our CTSI. We will retain those training elements proven to be highly effective and add new initiatives in response to rigorous programmatic evaluations. Our growing healthcare system serves nearly 6 million patients in 1,167 sites of care, offering an ideal laboratory for K12 Scholars to work across the full translational spectrum, from pre-clinical discoveries to testing clinical interventions to implementation. Notably, WF serves as the academic core of this new health system, and our aLHS serves as a guiding framework for advancing care delivery throughout the system.