The main idea is that the leaders at NIH want to encourage medical researchers to be more efficient in using the taxpayers' money to provide solutions to the citizens of this country. In particular, they want to know how we will improve the efficiency between basic science and clinical science; and between clinical science and medical practice. They also want to see how we will remove barriers between departments and institutions. They also want to increase collaboration with industry and government agencies.

We may be able to receive an additional 3-6 million dollars per year if we are successful at this. All GCRC will evolve into CTSAs over the next few years.

Specifically, what we need to describe in the grant application is the following:

1. What are the novel programs and services that we as biostatisticians can provide to accomplish these goals?
2. What are the metrics that we can use to assess success? Publications, impact factor, total impact per grant dollar, time to publication, etc. We need lots of metrics.
3. How can we study the effectiveness of research projects and help more investigators be optimally effective?
4. What novel biostatistics and study design courses can we propose? More efficient study designs. Courses on the research program as a whole.
5. If we were to hire an additional 4 FTE of biostatistical support for the CTSA, what would be the most efficient use of their time?
6. How can we leverage grant dollars and existing resources to go further?
7. How can biostatisticians function as catalysts to accomplish these goals?
8. How can the CTSA increase the number of public health problems that are effectively addressed by Vanderbilt researchers?
9. In the stream of work, how can we collect important metrics to display on a dashboard in real time to assess progress?
10. How can the CTSA increase the trans-departmental effectiveness? For example, nursing, behavioral experts, education experts, etc.
11. How can we be more nimble, dynamic and responsive?
12. How can we provide better continuing education and booster shots in the field of biostatistics?
13. How can we make sure that resources are appropriate for the burden of disease? See Healthy People 2010 Key Indicators.
14. We had 14 new students in the MSCI program this year. How can we increase the number of physician-scientists that receive this type of training?