NIH Awards $28.2M to Penn State CTSI to Expand Rural Clinical Trial Access and Health Research
核心洞察
The National Institutes of Health awarded Penn State's Clinical and Translational Science Institute $28.2 million to improve rural health and expand clinical trial access.
The funding will strengthen a statewide clinical network spanning 32 hospitals and over 1,100 clinics that care for more than 5 million patients, nearly 40% of Pennsylvania's population.
The CTSI will launch a Learning Community Health Network and test whether trained community health workers can boost rural clinical trial enrollment.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Penn State's Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) $28.2 million to improve rural health and expand access to clinical trials for populations that have historically been left out of research. The award, announced through the NIH's Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program, will fund a statewide effort to deepen community partnerships, harness emerging technologies, expand implementation science, and advance discoveries into practice.
"This award shows our commitment to making sure the latest medical breakthroughs and clinical trials reach everyone, especially people in rural areas who are often left out of research," said Jennifer Kraschnewski, vice dean for research, clinical and translational science at the College of Medicine. "It allows us to accelerate the missions we've always been so passionate about: deepening community partnerships, harnessing emerging technologies, expanding implementation science and advancing discoveries into practice."
A Foundation of Measurable Impact
The new award builds upon a period of significant growth for the institute, according to Kraschnewski, who pointed to the CTSI's recently completed 2021-2026 Five-Year Impact Report. Over the past five years, the CTSI supported more than 150 pilot research projects, which generated over $254 million in follow-on funding — a 15.7-to-1 return on investment. The institute also played a vital role in developing the next generation of translational leaders by training dozens of mentored career development award (KL2) scholars and translational research (TL1) trainees, and supporting over $25.6 million in funded implementation science grants.
"The institute has been a powerful engine for research excellence across Pennsylvania," Kraschnewski said. "This proven track record laid the groundwork for the NIH's continued, expanded investment."
Building Statewide Rural Clinical Networks and Research Infrastructure
A primary goal of the new funding is to strengthen the Rural Clinical Research Network — an expansive, collaborative infrastructure designed to reduce barriers to multi-site clinical trials and improve rural engagement in research. Within this structure, the CTSI will establish a novel Learning Community Health Network (LCHN). Grounded in the principles of a continuous learning health system, the LCHN will bring partner organizations together to collectively identify obstacles to research participation and co-create, implement, and disseminate research projects that advance rural health.
To achieve this, the CTSI has assembled an unprecedented statewide clinical network that includes Penn State Health, Allegheny Health Network (搜索) and Highmark Health (搜索), Primary Health Network (搜索), Geisinger Health System (搜索), and the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers (PACHC). Together, this expansive network comprises 32 hospitals and over 1,100 clinics and health centers, caring for over 5 million patients — nearly 40% of the state's population.
To ensure shared governance and equitable resource distribution, the CTSI is expanding its Internal Advisory Board to include representatives from the PA Office of Rural Health, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and members of the rural communities they serve. A newly formed Network Steering Committee, comprising CTSI leadership and a senior executive from each collaborating organization, will serve as the ultimate decision-making body, governing project coordination and overseeing the distribution of resources, including the selection and funding of collaborative rural health research projects across the network.
Beyond its external clinical network, the CTSI is investing heavily in research infrastructure and workforce across Penn State. To address staffing and training needs, the CTSI is expanding its iSMART (Infrastructure for Staffing, Mentorship, and Research Training) program and the Accelerated Staff Assistance Program (ASAP). ASAP provides vital short-term, trained research staff to support faculty projects during start-ups or staff leaves, ensuring continuous research operations.
"The CTSI will also continue to offer robust pilot funding, comprehensive research navigation services and streamlined operational support to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery for Penn State investigators," Kraschnewski said.
Advancing AI and Biomedical Data Sciences
As part of this project, the team will focus heavily on biomedical data sciences and artificial intelligence (BDAI) in partnership with the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. Vasant Honavar, Penn State's inaugural vice provost of AI, will provide technical leadership for the Penn State Digital Collaboratory for Precision Health Research, which will use AI to integrate and analyze multimodal clinical, imaging and genomic data. Working collaboratively with George Garrow, CEO at Primary Health Network (搜索), Pennsylvania's largest FQHC, the team plans to co-create a community health dashboard to better track and serve the needs of rural patients.
In addition, the CTSI is launching a flagship initiative to test whether trained community health workers can act as "research messengers" to increase clinical trial enrollment of rural community members. A major challenge in translational science has been the limited participation of rural communities in clinical research, according to Kraschnewski.
"Working closely with the PACHC and its vast network of FQHCs, the CTSI will integrate recruitment directly within community health centers and routine clinical workflows," Kraschnewski said. "By leveraging these trusted community voices alongside new BDAI resources, the CTSI hopes to identify and remove the barriers that keep rural populations from participating in real-world research."
Strength in Leadership and National Dissemination
To support this undertaking, Kraschnewski is backed by a leadership team including CTSI Associate Directors Orfeu Buxton, William Calo and Lauren Van Scoy, along with representatives from the Penn State College of Medicine, the College of Health and Human Development, College of Nursing, College of Engineering, College of Information Sciences and Technology, College of the Liberal Arts, and Penn State Harrisburg.
As a funded hub within the NIH's CTSA Program network, the Penn State CTSI will share its newly developed toolkits, rural engagement strategies, and LCHN framework with over 60 other CTSA institutions nationwide. By disseminating these scalable models, Penn State aims to provide a national blueprint for improving rural health and clinical trial participation across the country.