Formation of the Southern CTSA BERD Consortium
Michael Kutner, PhD, ACTSI Biostatistics, Epidemiology, & Research Design (BERD) program director, is leading a consortium of BERD program directors in the south to: (1) develop best practices, policies, and/or requirements for sharing of various types of data across institutions; (2) develop best practices, policies, and/or requirements for sharing information about resources and for use of resources across institutions; and (3) test and evaluate models for networking and collaborating together in the area of the conduct of multi-center clinical trials across institutions. So far, the consortium members are the BERD program directors from Vanderbilt, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, University of Alabama, UT Health Sciences Center at Houston, Duke University, UT Southwestern at Dallas, and the University of North Carolina, all of whom have written letters in support of the consortia's goals and objectives. The creation of this consortium of CTSA Data Coordinating Centers(DCCs) in the south, all capable of serving as a DCC for a multi-center clinical trial, would allow NIH funded multi-center trials to advance at a more rapid pace and thus save money by getting the trials done in a more timely manner. Ideas being explored to shorten start-up time for clinical trials include building an inventory of forms and documentation for forms, i.e. validation information for techniques; developing a toolbox of web-based software tools to more quickly implement new forms in distributed data management systems; and developing an inventory of web-based software to support data entry for specific commonly-used forms. This BERD Southern Consortium arrangement could serve as a model for the larger group of CTSA-funded institutions throughout the country.