Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Mar;85(3):470-5.
doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e3181ccd618.

Defining translational research: implications for training

Doris McGartland Rubio  1 , Ellie E Schoenbaum, Linda S Lee, David E Schteingart, Paul R Marantz, Karl E Anderson, Lauren Dewey Platt, Adriana Baez, Karin Esposito
Affiliations

Defining translational research: implications for training

Doris McGartland Rubio et al. Acad Med. 2010 Mar.

Abstract

Because translational research is not clearly defined, developers of translational research programs are struggling to articulate specific program objectives, delineate the knowledge and skills (competencies) that trainees are expected to develop, create an appropriate curriculum, and track outcomes to assess whether program objectives and competency requirements are being met. Members of the Evaluation Committee of the Association for Clinical Research Training (ACRT) reviewed current definitions of translational research and proposed an operational definition to use in the educational framework. In this article, the authors posit that translational research fosters the multidirectional and multidisciplinary integration of basic research, patient-oriented research, and population-based research, with the long-term aim of improving the health of the public. The authors argue that the approach to designing and evaluating the success of translational training programs must therefore be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of individual institutions and individual trainees within the institutions but that it must also be rigorous enough to document that the program is meeting its short-, intermediate-, and long-term objectives and that its trainees are meeting preestablished competency requirements. A logic model is proposed for the evaluation of translational research programs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Model for translational research, as proposed by the Evaluation Committee of the Association for Clinical Research Training.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Clinical and Translational Science Awards. About CTSAs. [Accessed November 13, 2009]. http://www.ctsaweb.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.aboutHome. [I suggest linking to the “About CTSAs” page in this citation because it points the reader directly to an explanation of CTSAs, rather than just to the general CTSA Website.]
    1. American Cancer Society. Glossary entry: “basic science”. [Accessed November 13, 2009.]. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/GRY/GRY_0.asp?dictionary=&pagKey=B.
    1. USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles. Glossary entry: “basic science”. [Accessed November 13, 2009.]. http://uscnorriscancer.usc.edu/glossary/
    1. Bush V, editor. Science: The Endless Frontier A Report to the President by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office; Jul1945. [Accessed November 13, 2009.]. Section 3 (The Importance of Basic Research), Chapter 3 (Science and the Public Welfare) http://www.nsf.gov/about/history/nsf50/vbush1945_content.jsp.
    1. Butler D. Translational research: crossing the valley of death. Nature. 2008;453(7197):840–842. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms