UF-FSU Hub CTSA Retreat: August 26, 2020

The University of Florida-Florida State University CTSA Hub Executive Leadership held a largely virtual retreat on August 26. It featured presentations by the FSU CTSA Team Leads, a discussion of strategic planning for translational science on the FSU campus, and research updates from rural health and precision medicine teams. The multi-college effort at FSU was highlighted in presentations by the KL2 Scholar Lead, Sylvie Naar (Medicine); Team Science Lead, Carla Wood (Communication and Information); Medical Student Research Lead, Suzanne Baker (Medicine); Network for Clinical Research and Training Director, Michelle Vinson (Medicine); Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design/Informatics Lead, Zhe He (Communication and Information); Community Engagement Lead, Joedrecka Brown Speights (Medicine); Evaluation Lead, Jeannine Tuner (Education); and Network Science Lead, Matthew Pietryka (Social Sciences and Public Policy).

A discussion of the FSU CTSA Executive Group’s three-month long strategic planning to develop a mission and identify the value of translational science at FSU highlighted the impact the CTSA award is already having for the FSU research community. The recipients of the FSU Rural Health Pilot Awards presented their successes in meeting the challenges of COVID-19 disruption of research and the next steps for achieving the goals of their projects.

The Co-PIs for each award included: Eren Erman Ozguven (Engineering) and Marcia Mardis (Communication and Information), Tanya Renn and Ellen Piekalkiewicz (Social Work), and Joe Grzywacz and Bob Hickner (Human Sciences). Previous and current awardees of the UF CTSI Precision Health Initiative Pilot Awards, Michael Killian (2019, Social Work) and Akash Gunjan (2020, Medicine), presented their goals and successes.

Finally, an important goal of the retreat was to develop new collaborative teams from UF and FSU to address health issues related to COVID-19. Round table discussions were held for researchers from both UF and FSU interested in a variety of health issues caused by or influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic. Topic areas included: COVID-19 and Mental Health, COVID-19 and Cardiovascular Disorders, COVID-19 and Health Disparities, and COVID-19 and Maternal-Child Health.