Federal Funding Will Support Indiana Health Research

There will be more public health resources in Indiana to speed research and advance treatment and prevention.

A new $33 million federal grant from the National Institutes of Health is committed to support Indiana CTSI – or Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. The research collaboration that started in 2008 includes Indiana University, Purdue University and Notre Dame. 

Part of the money will go to match people with clinical trials in Indiana. Indiana CTSI hopes to recruit 100,000 Hoosiers through the new All IN for Health initiative. Program director Tiffany Campbell says they need more people to make more of an impact. 

"Diversity is really important we know that diseases and health issues affect people differently," says Campbell. 

This is the second round of multi-million dollar funding from the NIH for the institute. Director and founder Anantha Shekhar says they will continue to work on core goals.  

"Infant mortality, the addiction crisis, smoking cessation, obesity and cardiovascular deaths," says Shekhar. 

He says they've been able to make progress on one of these goals through a program to reduce infant mortality in central Indiana. 

"So far we have engaged over 300 new moms every year that get prenatal care and all kinds of coaching," says Shekhar. 

The grant will help cover the next five years of work for the institute, including efforts to increase trial opportunities, speed research, advance treatment and prevention.