Needles in a Haystack: Finding Qualitative and Quantitative Collaborators in Academic Medical Centers

Area of Science:

• Translational Science
• Health Services Research
• Biomedical Informatics

Background:

• Translational research aims to translate scientific discoveries into health improvements.
• Effective translational research necessitates collaboration between clinical researchers and methodologists.
• Existing networks often lack formal processes for navigating collaborator expertise.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel analytic resource navigation process developed at Duke University.
• To facilitate connections between researchers and methodologists for enhanced collaboration.
• To provide a replicable model for academic medical centers to address unmet collaborative needs.

Main Methods:

• Development of a navigation process relying on individuals with broad methodologic knowledge and collaborative experience.
• Implementation of key elements: institutional knowledge of expertise, understanding research needs, educating researchers, and ongoing evaluation.
• Navigators assist in identifying expertise, finding collaborators, and documenting unmet needs.

Main Results:

• The process successfully connects potential collaborators and leverages institutional resources.
• It fosters a community of researchers and scientists, promoting interdisciplinary work.
• The model is designed for adoption by other academic medical centers.

Conclusions:

• The analytic resource navigation process offers a structured approach to enhance translational research collaboration.
• Key challenges include training navigators, comprehensive collaborator identification, and maintaining updated resource information.
• This formalized navigation system can significantly improve the efficiency and impact of translational science initiatives.