About CERTs
Annual Report Year 2
Focus on the Program
The Risk Series | PATHs to Knowledge | On the Horizon
On the Horizon
Fostering collaborations is a core value of the CERTs. Its importance has expanded over the past 2 years, so much so that creation of a separate group was required to do it justice.
As the proverb says, "Many hands make light work." In Year 2, we began development of an offshoot of CERTs, the Partnerships to Advance THerapeutics (PATHs), that will cultivate public-private partnerships across the United States.
In March 2001, Dr. Hugh Tilson, chair of the CERTs Steering Committee, led the first meeting of this group in Washington DC. Attendees included representatives of ~40 organizations interested in advancing the best use of therapeutics, including government agencies, caregivers, consumers, and insurers, among others.
Several Congressional staff members also attended, to learn more about CERTs and opportunities for collaboration in promoting the optimal use of therapeutics.
As a result of this meeting, the PATHs will be developing an Internet-based registry of educational and research projects, as an aid to pairing worthy projects with interested partners. The registry has several purposes:
- to serve as a resource of current and planned projects that aim to optimize the use of therapies;
- to identify and aid in partnerships around these projects; and
- to provide a list of participating organizations and their priorities relative to the optimal use of therapies.
The registry will include the project list, organizational summaries, and models for public-private partnerships. The registry is to be posted during Year 3.
The PATHs program is an important step in aiding collaborations that will improve the use of therapeutics. These collaborations will help us achieve our vision that much faster.