Letter From the President
Amid the ongoing upheaval, our clinical and translational research enterprises continue to support a broad array of research, and our programs continue to answer important questions about how we can improve the health of our communities. It is important to sustain the momentum of these activities, and to continue making ground in our usual work. Taking a moment to reflect on what ACTS has been doing, it is amazing what we have achieved together over the past year. I’d like to share a few highlights with you:
Our advocacy efforts have continued to help ensure funding for clinical and translational research. We have successfully fought for continued support for AHRQ and PCORI, as well as for line item funding of our research infrastructure, such as the CTSA program. We are also advocating for the support of activities to improve diversity and equity in clinical and translational research.
We led the Translational Science conference through a transformation – twice. Our original 2020 program included over 50% more sessions than prior years, all fully synchronized with affiliated meetings and events also occurring in the spring. We had already attracted a record number of registrants before we had to pivot to a virtual format. We led the transition to a fully virtual meeting with less than three weeks to plan. Despite the challenge and the short notice, we had hundreds of participants at the general sessions. Our strong commitment to partnerships helped us bring you the CR Forum Top Ten, a talk from the president of AAMC, a discussion with the Principal Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs, as well as presentations of our highest scoring scholar abstracts.
Your journal, the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, is now indexed with PubMed. Our portfolio of thematic issues continues to grow, providing a platform for curated sets of manuscripts describing the state of the art in dissemination and implementation science, data science in clinical and translational research, education, and team science, among others. To support rapid dissemination of research in the setting of COVID-19, we waived applicable fees for papers on this topic, and we are fast-tracking a special issue on describing the research playbook for public health emergencies.
We are providing our Special Interest Groups more support than ever before, helping them to organize and communicate. These vibrant communities are essential to sharing ideas, creating and testing best practices, and staying abreast and ahead of advances in our rapidly changing environment. Our Special Interest Groups (SIGs) continue to lead how we do clinical and translational research, how we teach clinical and translational research, and how we impact health through clinical and translational research.
Our strategic directions have been revised and our committees restructured to increase our accountability, improve our communication, and to bake diversity and equity into every facet of our activities.
Our IT systems and website are undergoing a major overhaul to improve your experience with accessing information about ACTS, our SIGs, the journal and our advocacy efforts. While still underway, our redesign is already making it easier to submit sessions and abstracts to Translational Science 2021.
These highlights present just a few of the advances we made over the past year, and we continue to think forward as to how we can serve you, our members. Central to our current focus is how we deliver education, engagement and collaboration through our annual meeting. Planning for Translational Science 2021 is well underway, led by Dr. Felicity Enders. Our re-imagined spring meeting promises to be a truly exceptional experience with forward thinking plenary sessions, meetings of our Special Interest Groups, the best scholar research in the nation, and top tier educational sessions. We are expanding our audiences by leveraging technology to broaden accessibility. Our theme is building bridges and breaking barriers, and engagement and networking are front and center. We look forward to learning, sharing, and growing together.
Christopher John Lindsell, PhD
President ACTS
News From the Hill
With the fiscal year coming to an end on October 1st and election year partisanship near all-time highs, Congress began working to swiftly enact a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government operating. Both parties and both chambers have indicated that they do not want to see the government shutdown and the House recently passed a “clean” CR with bipartisan support. The CR includes a handful of modest adjustments on health and education policy items, but largely maintains current (FY 2020) funding level until December 11th. The Senate is expected to pass the CR too indicating that lawmakers plan to revisit final spending bills for FY 2021 after the November election.
See the full letter on the ACTS Advocacy page.
Translational Science 2021
Translational Science 2021 is now accepting session proposals and abstract presentations! Don't miss your chance to make a big impact on clinical and translational research.
Session proposals are due Friday, October 30 and abstract presentations are due Wednesday, December 2. Visit our website for more information.
Submit Today
Journal of Clinical and Translational Science
Volume 4 / Issue 4 of the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science is now available online!
JCTS's mission is to provide a forum for the rapid communication of topics of interest and relevance to the large and diverse community of clinical and translational scientists with the goal of improving the efficiency with which health needs inform research and new diagnostics, therapies, and preventive measures reach the public. The Association for Clinical and Translational Science has partnered with the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) and the Clinical Research Forum (CRF) to support the growth and development of JCTS.
Submit your article today to be featured in future issues of JCTS! Please also visit the JCTS website for information on our themed issue related to Design, Development, Evaluation, and Dissemination of Team Science Interventions in Clinical and Translational Research.
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