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Project Title: General Clinical Research Centers CAM Research (GCRC CARE) Program
Program Officer:
Richard Nahin, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Phone: 301-496-7801
E-mail: nahinr@mail.nih.gov
Background
Congress has identified the 80 General Clinical Research Centers (GCRCs) supported by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) as "critical" resources for providing optimal venues and essential infrastructure for patient-oriented research. The GCRCs are seen as a driving force for future biomedical research, technologies and resources, and are in the forefront of clinical research training. They are expected to play a prominent part in implementation of the NIH Roadmap on translational research.
Historically, some of the first CAM clinical research supported by NIH was through GCRCs in the 1970s and 1980s. Such support has continued to the present day. However, the support is limited both in the number of projects funded (out of the thousands of GCRC projects funded in FY 2001, only 12 were CAM: 10 biologically based, 1 acupuncture, and 1 mind-body) and the numbers of GCRCs involved (15%).
Description
The initiative will solicit projects from those NCRR GCRCs that are positioned to pursue clinical research investigating CAM. This program will require qualified CAM practitioners as active members of an interdisciplinary research team. It will be important for each applicant to consider how the development of a CAM research program will impact on their communities, placing special emphasis, when possible, on minority and underserved populations in the community.
Goals
The goal of the initiative is to stimulate CAM research at GCRCs nation-wide. Given the existing resources and infrastructure at GCRCs, including personnel (nursing staff, laboratory staff, biostatisticians), facilities (laboratory facilities, IT), and patient populations already enrolled in clinical studies, it is expected that the initiative will be used primarily to pay for investigator time.
This initiative is expected to facilitate and expand the evaluation of CAM treatments for the wide array of diseases and conditions currently being evaluated at GCRCs. Preliminary data generated by this initiative will serve as the basis for further, more ambitious research studies including definitive clinical trials.
Other goals are to attract GCRC investigators to the field of CAM research and to provide a stable scientific environment where CAM practitioners can actively participate in rigorous research.
Proposed Funding Mechanisms
R03, R21 (3 year awards)
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