ASH News Daily 2017 - Issue 3 - B-42

ASH News Daily

Page B-42

Monday, December 11, 2017

Clinical Research Training Institute in Latin America

he ASH Clinical Research
Training Institute in Latin
America (CRTI-LA) is an
intensive two-day program comprising didactic and small-group
sessions designed for fellows and
early- to mid-career hematology
faculty working in Latin American
countries who are engaged in clinical research and training and wish
to become more familiar with clinical trial design and execution. The
purpose of the didactic sessions is to
introduce participants to the fundamentals of clinical trial design, and
topics include the importance of
good mentoring, developing clinical research questions, biostatistics,
overview of trial designs, and writing abstracts and manuscripts for
publication. The small group breakouts allow faculty and participants
to interact and to evaluate proposals
based on didactic discussions.
Here, Eloisa Riva, MD, of Hospital de Clinicas in Montevideo,
Uruguay, offers her perspective on
the program's forthcoming expansion, as well as her vision for how
CRTI-LA is becoming a part of a
strengthening research community
in Latin America.

CRTI gives young researchers the boost they need
to succeed in the field,
and provides a basis for
them to become a source
of motivation, mentoring,
and networking.

Eloisa Riva, MD

What's the most interesting or exciting thing about the advanced course
expansion for CRTI-LA?
Eloisa Riva: The CRTI-LA advanced course has been organized in response to previous
CRTI participants' desire to bring
an increasing sense of continuity
to the program. It focuses on topics that have been quoted as most
relevant and of practical use. The
first workshop addresses the ques-

tion of how to design an observational study. Each participant has
the opportunity to attend as many
as three one-on-one sessions focused on specific topics, including systematic reviews, statistical
analysis, developing a registry,
and others. It represents an excellent opportunity to deepen participants' knowledge of the area and
is a further step to strengthen clinical research in Latin America.
What is the greatest impact of the
CRTI-LA program on the Latin American training environment thus far?
ER: Since 2013, this course has
been an opportunity for formal
training in clinical research, motivating local researchers to lead
their own projects, improve their
confidence and skills, and get their
work published. The benefits now

have gone beyond personal achievements, enabling participants to
spread their experience with other
colleagues and mentees and encourage them to become interested in the
field and develop their own projects. There has been an increasing
attendance to CRTI-LA in this most
recent period, which has helped us
develop a broadened community of
local researchers.
What's been the greatest impact
of the program, in your view, on the
hematology training community as a
whole?
ER: CRTI sessions provide a
first-hand vision of the status of
clinical research in several Latin
American countries. Participants
share their experiences, enabling
us to identify difficulties and
strengths so as to develop research
adapted to their own contexts.
CRTI gives young researchers the
boost they need to succeed in the
field, and provides a basis for them
to become a source of motivation,
mentoring, and networking. The
consolidation of a critical mass of
local investigators will help us to
seed the future of clinical research
in Latin America.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASH News Daily 2017 - Issue 3