Translation and Implementation Science Research for Heart, Lung, Blood Diseases, and Sleep Disorders

Translation and Implementation Science Research for Heart, Lung, Blood Diseases, and Sleep Disorders is sponsored by Department of Health And Human Services. This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science | NHLBI, NIH Divisions, Offices and Centers Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science The Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science (CTRIS) is the strategic focal point within NHLBI to stimulate rigorous domestic and global dissemination and implementation research that advances the adoption, spread, and scale of evidence-based interventions for the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders in clinical and public health settings in the United States and abroad.

The Center’s mission is to catalyze the development of a robust, integrated, and coordinated research and training portfolio of observational and interventional studies.

These studies focus on improving the understanding, testing, and identification of multilevel strategies (actions targeting various levels in an implementation ecosystem, from individuals to the policies that influence them) and factors critical for the successful, sustained, and scaled delivery of evidence-based interventions in real-world clinical and public health settings such as health centers, worksites, communities, and schools in the United States and abroad.

CTRIS also supports research to reduce health disparities and inequities in heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders in the United States and abroad. Studies supported by CTRIS build on successes in fundamental discovery science and early-stage translational research to ensure findings achieve maximal benefit for people and their communities.

They also help tackle new challenges in late-stage translation research (the phase that leads to generalizable knowledge about implementing evidence and evidence-based interventions in real-world settings), which helps turn discoveries into clinical practices that improve people’s health.

To achieve its mission, CTRIS integrates its domain expertise in all NHLBI organizational units and leverages NIH-wide investments in dissemination and implementation research as well as in health inequities research.

Related Scientific Focus Areas Community-engaged Research for Successful Dissemination & Implementation Science Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science CTRIS, in collaboration with other NHLBI units and NIH Institutes, is leading the effort to integrate community-engaged research with implementation science.

In so doing, CTRIS is testing the idea that when communities are meaningfully engaged early and throughout all phases of research, strategies for disseminating and implementing research findings are more effective, more likely to be sustained, and ready to expand and be adopted by others.

CTRIS supports testing community engagement in Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) research across a spectrum of approaches, such as community-based participatory research, participatory action research, practice-based research networks, and asset-based community development.

CTRIS promotes community-engaged research that leverages the best available theories, models, and frameworks for D&I and community engagement, like the National Academy of Medicine’s ‘ Assessing meaningful engagement conceptual model . ’ CTRIS also validates pragmatic measures to promote generalizable knowledge.

In addition, CTRIS hosts scientific workshops to inform this research: Advancing the science of community-engaged health disparities research Centering Communities in Dissemination Research to Promote Health Equity CTRIS also supports NHLBI in its partnership with NIMHD to lead the Community Engagement Alliance ( CEAL ), an NIH-wide research network of academic and community partners to conduct community-engaged research working to eradicate disparities.

Training, Career Development, and Capacity Building in Late-stage Translational Research Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science Training and career development opportunities are particularly important to growing the dissemination and implementation (D&I) community of researchers studying heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders.

Researchers need to learn D&I research terminology, outcomes, measures, theories, models, frameworks, and reporting guidelines. In addition, the nature of D&I research demands skill in engaging multiple interested entities, including patients and their communities, providers, care teams, administrators, leaders, policymakers, and payors.

For example, bringing D&I methods together with numerous partners demands creativity in selecting study designs that fit different priorities and constraints. CTRIS and NHLBI participate in many parent NOFOs designed to bolster training and career development, including F31s, F32s, T32s, R25s, K01s, and K23s.

CTRIS and NHLBI also partner with the Fogarty International Center on training and career development awards, including the D43 and K43. CTRIS is committed to growing a diverse D&I workforce, and several opportunities are available to applicants. Interested applicants are encouraged to seek technical assistance from CTRIS staff when exploring these investigator-initiated training and fellowship programs.

Multilevel Strategies to Integrate Evidence-based Interventions and Address Social Determinants of Health Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science Increasingly, there is recognition that many evidence-based interventions fail to reach populations in need because of social and structural determinants of health that require multilevel strategies.

However, multilevel strategy design and testing is complex for multiple reasons. More pragmatic methods that integrate the extant literature and theorizing are needed because it can be difficult to identify and prioritize interrelated barriers and facilitators with communities. More evidence is needed to match feasible strategies to the changing barriers, facilitators, and various constraints in specific contexts.

There are still many unanswered empirical questions: When should social determinants be changed instead of adapting the evidence-based intervention? When should both be tailored to the context? What is the best approach for designing the most cost-effective multilevel strategy to achieve outcomes such as the degree of reach of an intervention within a target population?

CTRIS is highly involved in NIH-wide efforts to promote multilevel and intervention-based health disparities research, such as the Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity funding opportunity and the post-pandemic refocusing of the CEAL teams and initiatives toward intervention-based research that seeks to address disparities in social and structural determinants of health. George A. Mensah, M.

D. , FACC Health Inequities and Global Health Branch The Health Inequities and Global Health (HIGH) Branch is NHLBI’s focal point for advancing the scientific understanding of health disparities, minority health, and health inequities and developing implementation strategies for proven interventions that address health disparities and promote health equities around the world.

View funding information for health inequities and global health research . Implementation Science Branch The Implementation Science Branch (ISB) supports dissemination and implementation research that explores promising strategies for adopting, integrating, sustaining, scaling, and spreading evidence-based heart, lung, blood, and sleep interventions in clinical and public health settings such as clinics, worksites, and communities.

This program also supports research training and career development, research mentoring, and research capacity-building and infrastructure development to grow a multidisciplinary heart, lung, blood, and sleep research workforce. View funding information for implementation science research .

Translation Research Branch The Translation Research Branch (TRB) leverages methods and insights from late-stage research to expedite the development, testing, and implementation of evidence-based interventions.

This includes encouraging the use of methodological innovations (mixed methods approaches, underutilized study designs, etc.), promoting methods for engaging communities and end users in clinical research, designing interventions with the implementation settings in mind, identifying constraints and opportunities for multiple levels of prevention (primary, secondary, and tertiary), testing pragmatic measures with rigorous research methods to support the uptake of interventions, and using data science to leverage multilevel, multisectoral data.

The Office of the Director at CTRIS provides leadership for the Center’s programs and their robust research portfolios, and it is the hub for all late-stage research and dissemination and implementation science across NHLBI.

The Office oversees scientific workshops and educational programs about translation, implementation, health inequities, and global health research for trainees and investigators, and it facilitates the assessment and dissemination of health information to the scientific community and the public. The Office also collaborates with others within NHLBI, NIH, other federal health agencies, academia, and global organizations.

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“It was... Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science Health Equity Research Outreach (HERO) Lecture Series: Centering Health Equity in Dissemination and Implementation Research CTRIS presents the December installment of the 2024 HERO Series, focusing on Dissemination and Implementation research.

Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Rockledge I, 6705 Rockledge Drive, 4th floor, MSC 7960