Developing translational medicine professionals: the Marie Skłodowska-Curie action model

Abstract

End goal of translational medicine is to combine disciplines and expertise to eventually promote improvement of the global healthcare system by delivering effective therapies to individuals and society. Well-trained experts of the translational medicine process endowed with profound knowledge of biomedical technology, ethical and clinical issues, as well as leadership and teamwork abilities are essential for the effective development of tangible therapeutic products for patients. In this article we focus on education and, in particular, we discuss how programs providing training on the broad spectrum of the translational medicine continuum have still a limited degree of diffusion and do not provide professional support and mentorship in the long-term, resulting in the lack of well established professionals of translational medicine (TMPs) in the scientific community. Here, we describe the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program ITN-EUtrain (EUropean Translational tRaining for Autoimmunity & Immune manipulation Network) where training on the Translational Medicine machinery was integrated with education on professional and personal skills, mentoring, and a long-lasting network of TMPs.

Areas of strength and opportunities for growth in translational science education and training: Results of a scoping review from the NCATS Education Branch

“…Another article, by Rios et al, 63 focused on describing the evaluation of an E&T opportunity described in a separate article 41 . Of these 15 articles, two‐thirds ( n = 10; 67%) used a post‐experience data collection approach, involving a survey, discussion group, or interviews with participants 35,36,45,46,50,56,58,60,61,63 . Another third ( n = 5; 33%) used both pre‐ and post‐experience data collection, including participant surveys and knowledge tests 39,43,48,53,57 .…”

Awareness of and attitudes toward translational medicine among health personnel in hospitals in Shanghai, China

“…To promote translational medicine, more training and education about translation medicine is needed. 44,45…”

“…To promote translational medicine, more training and education about translation medicine is needed. 44,45 Positive reactions to translational medicine practice are more likely in individuals who have some knowledge of translational medicine and are aware of its significance, and are less likely in individuals with unfavourable attitudes toward translational medicine. To increase awareness of translational medicine in China, effective measures are needed.…”

Implementation of the DP-Transfers Project in Catalonia—A Translational Method to Improve Diabetes Screening and Prevention in Primary Care

“…Nevertheless, one fifth of the centres and more than one third of the professionals showed substantial resistance to performing these additional activities. Professionals were specifically trained in the methodology needed to achieve the objectives but they are still far from the recently proposed academic qualification of translational process experts [21]. Although there is already a critical mass of professionals who keep the project active, there are 3 relevant challenges at work: (1) at one-year of follow-up it is likely that only half of the primary care centres have successfully integrated the scheduled activities into routine clinical practice, (2) a significant number of professionals identified the project as a conventional study, and therefore, did not achieve the required level of participation to keep the programme active over time, (3) a non insignificant number of professionals will probably leave the project if they are not encouraged [22,23].…”