WashU Awarded $3 Million to Train Scholars to Apply Scientific Findings

Researchers at the Brown School and the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis have received a $3 million grant to implement preventive and treatment strategies for heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders.

The new program, Mentored Training in Implementation Science (MTIS), will put into practice discoveries made in biomedical research that have not been fully utilized in community and clinical settings. Guidelines for the treatment of asthma, for example, are not being used in clinical practice although they have been shown to be efficient and effective.

“This program is one of the first of its kind and will help us in building critical capacity for addressing some of the most important health conditions facing our country and the world,” said Ross Brownson, Bernard Becker professor at the Brown School, an associate director of the new program along with Enola Proctor, Shanti K. Khinduka Distinguished Professor. Both have been recognized internationally for their dissemination and implementation research.

The program’s director will be Dr. Mario Castro, the Edith and Alan Wolff Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the School of Medicine.

“Our hope is to train the future leaders in bringing the latest D&I research in heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders to the bedside in a much more efficient and effective manner and to the community by providing useful guidance for clinicians and better care for patients,” Dr. Castro said.

The program is one of several around the nation funded by the National Institutes of Health. The MTIS will start enrolling scholars in the summer of 2018. “The scholars will receive uniquely in-depth training, research, and salary support for investigators who are moving into later stage translational research for heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders,” Proctor said.

For more information, contact the MTIS at https://mtisstl.org/