NEWS

Collaborative Biomedical Research Program (CBR) Offers Grants Up To $25,000
The Next Grant Proposal Deadline is December 15th 2006

The Baystate/UMass Collaborative Biomedical Research (CBR) Program awards grants twice each year for promising research projects that include Co-Principal Investigators from both institutions in order to enhance collaborative research relationships between Baystate Medical Center clinicians and the University of Massachusetts basic science faculty. The program provides seed funds for obtaining publishable, preliminary data that will guide and strengthen subsequent full research applications to federal or national-level funding agencies. These grants will not, as a rule, be awarded for on-going support of current projects.

Program Goal
In agreement with the NIH's "roadmap" for medical research in the 21st century, our goal is to "stimulate interdisciplinary research teams." CBR grants are intended to facilitate the formation of interdisciplinary teams that focus on important medically related problems. The research plan should be well conceived, feasible and responsive to an existing federal or national-level funding initiative.

Criteria for Funding
The current level of funding is a maximum of $25,000. The following criteria are used to evaluate proposals:

• Proposal objectives

• Background information

• Intellectual merit of proposed research

• Technical approach

• Strength of collaboration

• Potential for future funding

Proposal Content

• Cover page, listing 4 potential UMass or Baystate reviewers

• Biographical sketches for the Co-Principal Investigators (using the NIH format, available at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ncn/grants/write/write_s7.htm)

• Budget and justification

Additional information is available at: www.baystatehealth.com/cbr/grants.html.  Questions regarding this program should be directed to the CBR Co-Directors, Dr. Barry Braun (bbraun@kin.umass.edu) or Dr. Hal Jenson (Hal.Jenson@bhs.org).

Rays of Hope Breast Health Fundraiser
Research Grant Proposal Due January 16, 2007

Rays of Hope walkathon was founded in 1994 with 500 walkers. The walk has grown into the largest single-day fundraising event in western Massachusetts, with over 7,000 participants at one location in 2005.

The mission of Rays of Hope is to raise funds to improve the breast health of the people in our communities with quality and compassion in partnership with Baystate Health System’s Comprehensive Breast Center by focusing on:

• offering community education and outreach

• providing coordinated, accessible, and medically advanced care at the initial stage of diagnosis and continuing through treatment and recovery

• supporting patients through the continuum of care that acknowledges the needs of the whole person

• funding breast cancer research.

Research Proposals Criteria

1. Scientific merit

2. Impact on the community

3. Impact on the Comprehensive Breast Center

4. Potential for external funding

Proposals will be reviewed and grant recipients will be notified by April 16, 2007.  Most awards are in the $5,000 - $20,000 range.  These funds are usually regarded as start-up funds to pave the way for eventual outside funding.

For further information regarding submissions, please contact:
Grace Makari-Judson, MD
Medical Director, The Comprehensive Breast Center
Phone: (413) 794-5433
Email: Grace.Makari-Judson@bhs.org

Tufts Educational Retreat
Focus is on Integrated Translational Education

More than 120 Tufts University School of Medicine faculty met in Wellesley on November 20, 2006 for an educational strategic planning retreat. Updates were given by the three Curriculum Working Groups: MedFoundations, MedCore and MedExplorations.

MedFoundations is revamping the content, structure and teaching/learning/assessment methods of the core requirements for preclerkship education. This material will be taught in a timeframe of 1.75 years, which will allow the clerkships for the third year medical school to begin in March instead of July.

MedCore is revising the core clerkships to include a greater "translational" component.

MedExplorations is developing the curriculum to produce graduates who excel in communication and patient interaction, are self-motivated problem-solvers, and are well prepared for their next level of training.

There is much work to develop key ideas for a new curriculum for undergraduate medical education at Tufts. The focus currently is to achieve integrated "translational education" through new teaching and assessment methods.

Several Baystate faculty participated in the retreat, including Carmel Armon MD, Sandra Bellantonio MD, Martin Broder MD, Thomas Campfield MD, Steve Fischel MD, PhD, Philip Hsu MD, Hal Jenson MD, David Longworth MD, Grace Makari-Judson MD, John Santoro MD, and Joe Schmidt MD.