April 19, 2004

Third in a series focusing on U.Va. Health System’s Decade Plan. Each month, Link examines the focus of a different operating committee.

The charge to the Decade Plan’s Research Committee is to find ways to enhance the overall biomedical research enterprise at the school of medicine and its interaction with other research programs throughout the university. Committee members have looked at ways to enhance basic research, translational research and clinical research—moving research from bench to bedside.

“Bench to Bedside” Research“ We would like to make improvements in the infrastructure that would promote multi-investigator research projects, which is most often what occurs if you try to go from bench to bedside,” says Gary K. Owens, Ph.D., committee co-chair. “At U.Va., we currently have five basic science departments ranked in the top 30; three in the top 10. That is a very strong foundation we can use to interface with our clinical enterprise to make remarkable advances in the practice of medicine.”

Research Advisory Committee

A first step was the establishment of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC). The 12-member RAC includes both basic and clinical investigators. It provides scientific expertise and recommendations to Arthur Garson, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., vice president and dean of the School of Medicine, regarding major research allocations, new research initiatives and establishment of principals and policies to promote the overall research effort in the school.

In its first eight months, the RAC instituted a major planning effort with regards to utilization of research space within the institution. “We have, for the first time in the history of the school, a very clear understanding of our research space inventory and how it is being used to generate biomedical research funding,” says Owens. “We’re optimistic that we’re going to come up with a plan to manage it more efficiently and to more effectively promote interactions between basic, translational
and clinical researchers.”

Indirect Costs and Consulting

Other RAC initiatives include a new policy for distribution of research funds to cover indirect costs, such as heat, lighting, libraries, Internet and others. Efforts will be made to ensure that some indirect cost funds reach research centers and core laboratories in which investigators from different departments within the School of
Medicine share facilities and materials. The RAC is also in the final stages of approving a new policy regarding faculty consultation with outside entities such as
pharmaceutical and biotech companies, recognizing the importance of such partnerships and informationsharing to translating research results to the bedside.

New Faculty Positions

Two new faculty positions have been created to assist in these missions. The first is an assistant dean for research in the School of Medicine, who will work jointly between the RAC and the School of Medicine Office for Research headed by Erik Hewlett, M.D. The assistant dean will aid the RAC in reviewing requests for research allocations in the School of Medicine for support of core laboratories and for hiring new faculty members whose principal academic activity would be
research. This person will also assist Dr. Hewlett’s office in implementing recommendations of the RAC that are approved by the dean.

The second position will be an associate dean for clinical investigations. The person in this position will be charged with improving the entire clinical research enterprise. “In particular,” says Eugene Barrett, M.D., Ph.D., RAC co-chair, “this person will work to foster the development of interactions between clinical and
basic investigators so that we can have a free flowing exchange of information, ideas and innovation.”

An additional educational mission will be to develop a corps of experienced
researchers who can assist clinically trained individuals to develop research careers.

Looking Forward

Both positions should be filled by summer. “The Research Committee is now entering a phase where one of our most important tasks is going to be to engage the faculty in the processes that we want to put into place to enhance the research enterprise,” says Barrett. “My hope is that by this July, we’ll be looking more
forward. For example, the NIH has initiated their roadmap for research for the future. This will provide some creative but also challenging new funding mechanisms, and we have to be in a position to proactively develop mechanisms that allow us to respond.”