s c i e n c e
All in for Florida
Optimizing health outcomes for more than 21
million Florida residents is a common goal for
Florida State University and the University of
Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
For good reason, they’ve teamed up to earn a
five-year, $29 million Clinical and Translational
Science Award (CTSA) from the National
The highly competitive grants support a
nationwide network of more than 50 CTSA
hubs that develop, demonstrate and disseminate
advances in translational science, a field devoted
to turning research discoveries into new
approaches that improve health.
UF became the first state recipient of CTSA
Hackley
Institutes of Health.
Joyce
CTSA funding will allow FSU and UF to
to the health of our region and the state,” said
expand their collaboration, further developing Jeffrey Joyce, senior associate dean for research and
funding in 2009. A year later, a combination of and aligning expertise across the two universities graduate programs at the FSU College of Medicine.
CTSA and state funding created an opportunity to address complex health challenges in the for the FSU College of Medicine to join forces communities they serve.
with UF in developing new capabilities for
community-based clinical research.
Over the next five years, a third cycle of
“The investment that Florida State University
“With the UF-FSU CTSA, we are engaging
many of our colleges in the effort to address
mental health and health conditions such as
has made in translational research and our expertise HIV, which impact our rural communities and
in behavioral health interventions are important have not received the attention needed.”
Tackling Florida’s cancer disparities
community, where the screening rates are equal,
black and white residents. George Rust wants we might be able to say, ‘Here’s where you need
to continue that lifesaving trend. to focus your efforts. Maybe it’s in partnership
His current target is disparities involving
with hospitals and oncologists, to really make
breast and colorectal cancers. With a three- sure that the new lifesaving treatments are
year Bankhead-Coley research grant from the getting equally to everyone who needs them.
Florida Department of Health, his team is using And that’s how many lives you could save if you
big-data analytics to produce user-friendly did that.’”
information for Florida communities.
These are two of the most screenable, treatable
you could save,’” Rust said. “In a different
Hackley
A few Florida communities are reducing or
eliminating some health disparities between
He’s collaborating with FSU’s statistics and
geography departments, as well as health
and curable cancers, says Rust, professor in the services researchers in the College of Medicine.
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social He’s also hiring a Ph.D. computer-simulation-
Rust
Medicine. He wants to help communities modeling researcher. Penny Ralston, dean ‘What if we move the screening rate by this
determine what’s keeping blacks from being emerita of the College of Human Sciences, is much?’ ‘What if we decrease the lag time in
screened, treated and/or cured as often as whites coordinating community engagement through diagnosis by this much?’ ‘What if we increase
– and then encourage those communities to act. the Health Equity Research Institute and its the proportion of people that are going to a
community partners across Florida. cancer center or getting the optimal cancer
“Let’s say Community A has a big screening
gap – we could say, ‘There’s your most strategic “If we can develop a fairly accurate model of
opportunity to save lives – if you could equalize predicting what the death rates are for cancer,
those screening rates, this is how many lives we can ask the computer questions such as:
2
treatment?’”
It’s like personalized medicine, he said –
except this time the community is the patient.