By: Carolynn Thomas Jones

To address the need for a well-prepared, competent workforce, the National Center for Clinical and Translational Science (NCATS) has funded a grant entitled “Development, Implementation, and Assessment of Novel Training in Domain-based Competencies” (DIAMOND).  This grant has four multi-PIs at University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, Tufts University and University of Rochester, and is a continuation of earlier work funded by NCATS called “Enhancing Clinical Research Professionals’ Training and Qualifications (ECRPTQ)” (1).  These two projects have both embraced the JTF Clinical Trial Competencies, including applications of the competency domains beyond clinical trials to include social and behavioral clinical research.  Individuals from the Joint Task Force were highly involved in workgroups for ECRPTQ (Stephen Sonstein, Carolynn Jones and Jonathan Seltzer, and in DIAMOND (Carolynn Jones) serves as mPI and Stephen Sonstein serves as an Advisory Board Member.

The Association of Clinical Research Professionals in Mexico (APEIC) is actively promoting the JTF Core Competency Framework among local clinical research professionals and the different local associations.  Academic sessions based upon the JTF domains are being presented at monthly meetings and a professional certification program based upon the core competencies is being developed targeting APEIC associates.  The JTF Competency Domain “wheel” has been translated into Spanish and is now used in all APEIC public messages (more…)