The National Cancer Institute's transdisciplinary centers initiatives and the need for building a science of team science.

摘要

When the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was reorganized by former Director Richard Klausner, a new Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) was established in the Fall of 1997. Under the leadership of Drs. Barbara Rimer and Robert Hiatt, the division rapidly set out to reinvigorate the science of cancer control through the development of new initiatives in surveillance, epidemiology, health services, behavioral, and cancer survivorship research. One important assumption underlying these efforts was that the speed of scientific progress and its effective application to public health problems would depend on the integration of discipline-specific efforts and increased support for collaboration, evidence synthesis, and the science of dissemination.1 A key strategy for achieving those goals was the development of new transdisciplinary team science research centers, focused on four problem domains that were seen as critical barriers against effective cancer prevention and control: tobacco use, health disparities, obesity, and poor communication. Although these four initiatives were housed within the new Behavioral Research Program within DCCPS, it was clear from the outset that to effectively accomplish the program objectives, both the centers projects and investigators would need to span a wide range of disciplines, from molecular biology to policy studies.