The Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and the University of Washington (UW) Institutes for Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) are proud to announce that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is awarding $2.5 million to create a primary care research hub for research-to-clinic connectivity in the Pacific Northwest.
The award brings together two stellar networks that have been advancing clinical research in primary care settings, the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network (ORPRN) at OHSU, and the WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) Practice and Research Network (WPRN), supported by the ITHS and UW Family Medicine.
This also marks a new collaboration between the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program hubs, Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute (OCTRI) at OHSU, and the Institute of Translational Health Sciences at the University of Washington.
Together they are creating the Primary Care Rural and Frontier Clinical Trials Innovation Center to Advance Health Equity (PRaCTICE) Network Research Hub (NRH). The vision is to accelerate research advancement for adoption into every day clinical care, improving health outcomes and advancing health equity.
Melinda Davis, Ph.D., M.C.R., director of ORPRN and the OCTRI Community and Collaboration Core, will lead the overall collaboration. Allison Cole, M.D., M.P.H., director of WPRN and co-director of the ITHS Community Engagement Module, and Sebastian Tong, M.D., M.P.H., associate director of WRPN and a co-investigator in the ITHS Community Engagement Module, will oversee activities in WWAMI.
The goal is to implement a sustained infrastructure that integrates innovative research with routine clinical care in real world settings with communities that are traditionally underrepresented in clinical research.
“We eagerly anticipate collaborating with our local partners – primary care providers and patient communities – to tackle the health challenges they identify as most pressing,” said NIH Director Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli. “These awards will lay the groundwork for primary care-focused clinical research, creating opportunities for people to engage in research that matters to them right where they receive their care.”
Read the joint press release from ITHS & OHSU here.
Read the NIH announcement here.
