A clinical researcher completes a landmark study on schizophrenia with real-world implications for patient care. She publishes the results in a prestigious medical journal, collects compliments from colleagues and waits for her work to reach the healthcare providers on the ground.

Unfortunately, the wait will last about 20 years.

While the scenario might seem absurd in an era of near-instant communication, it's not. The best clinical research takes an astounding two decades to make it from the halls of academia to hospitals and clinics. Meanwhile, healthcare professionals lag generations behind the science that should be informing their practice. But at USC, translational scientists from the School of Social Work, the Keck School of Medicine and six other schools are working to ensure the public benefits from the breakthroughs taking place in clinics and laboratories nationwide.

School of Social Work Professors Kathleen Ell and John Brekke are among the leaders of the Los Angeles Basin Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)—USC's newly funded health research center emphasizing the mental and physical well-being of people living in densely populated urban areas.

Tom Buchanan, associate dean for clinical research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, directs the CTSI, which was established in 2006 and until recently launched community research and interdisciplinary projects on a small scale, including the development of an interactive computer game that helps autistic children better interact on an emotional level, one of the deficits of those with the disorder.

But now the institute is poised to reach new heights—with social work playing an integral role in the ascent.

This summer, the CTSI was awarded a prestigious five-year, $56.8 million Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institute of Health, securing a place in a growing consortium of National Institute of Health-funded health research centers.

A top priority for the NIH, CTSAs connect interdisciplinary, investigative teams of basic scientists to clinical and community researchers and practitioners with a goal of accelerating the translation of laboratory discoveries into practice.

At USC, faculty from eight schools and Children's Hospital Los Angeles will partner with Kaiser Permanente Southern California, the Los Angeles County Departments of Health Services and Mental Health, the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County and more than 30 community health organizations in greater Los Angeles to address the specific needs of the diverse, urban patient populations found in USC's backyard of downtown Los Angeles.

Working with Director Michele Kipke in the CTSI's Office of Community Engagement, Ell and Brekke will serve as primary points of contact for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and Department of Mental Health. The Office of Community Engagement will be tasked with assessing the needs of the community, developing new projects, facilitating partnerships with researchers and training end-users on research and products coming out of the CTSI.

"Basically, we will be one of the first stops along the conveyer belt so to speak," Brekke said. "We are trying to break down these fiefdoms and create real linkages between people, university departments and service agencies."

The pair said their biggest task will be establishing a level of trust needed to build shared agendas among researchers, practitioners and community health organizations that rarely interact with each other.

"In the traditional model, researchers often pick their projects out of a vacuum; they aren't necessarily the projects that the community wants or needs. A researcher might helicopter in to a community clinic to get subjects for a study, and then when they're done, that's it. You never see them again, and no good comes out of it for the community clinic," said Ell. "We have to break that cycle. And if it doesn't happen at the community engagement level, it becomes business as usual."

In addition to facilitating the projects of others, the pair will continue to work on their own research, which currently includes the testing of a health navigator intervention designed to link mental health and health care services for the severely mentally ill in Los Angeles County and the testing of health technologies that are aimed at sustaining depression care for ethnically/racially diverse, low-income patients with diabetes in community safety net clinics.

Brekke is also involved in a CTSI-funded pilot project using video ethnography to better understand measures of cognition and community functioning in schizophrenia.

Pioneers in the field of translational research, Ell and Brekke believe social work is ideally positioned to significantly influence the national translational research agenda because of its prominent placement in the human services sector and a strong interdisciplinary focus in much of its training and research. Social workers provide the majority of mental health services to consumers in both specialty mental health settings and primary health care settings.

Yet, social work is underrepresented in the translational science agenda. In fact, USC is believed to be the first university where a school of social work has played a leadership role in the development of an NIH-funded CTSI.

"This is a huge accomplishment for Kathy, John and the entire School of Social Work," said Dean Marilyn Flynn, who is a member of the CTSI's Internal Oversight Committee. "Our school is contributing to the future of the translational science agenda and leading the way for other schools of social work in the 21st century."

There are now 55 health research centers across the nation developing new ways to advance medical research in many disease areas and conditions, including cancer, mental illness, neurological disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.

USC competed for the award against 38 other institutions, including three major academic institutions in Southern California. Nine institutions received grant awards this year, and the NIH has stated that it plans to implement a maximum of 60 Clinical and Translational Science Awards overall.