Teamwork Posted on November 21, 2007 Andrew A. Nierenberg (bio) describes the Bipolar Trials Network, which formed after STEP-BD was completed.

NIMH funded something called STEP-BD which is the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program in Bipolar Disorder. That ended, but there was an infrastructure left behind that NIMH realized had great value.

So they morphed that into a network that would have the capacity to do intervention research. It’s relatively young at this point, will develop over time, and we'll probably have several studies over time that could be run on it. It currently consists of six sites, but will probably also be expandable.

The other parts that are available within the BTN, the Bipolar Trials Network, is there is a very good database. There is a very good stats section to it. There’s a very careful coordinating section through Mass General and the Harvard Clinical Research Institute. And we plan over time to be able to do the types of research that wouldn’t be done by anybody else.

So they wouldn’t be able to be done in small trials; they wouldn’t be able to be done by industry. We would do the types of trials that we would hope would have a substantial public health impact. And one part of it that we want to develop is the training part of it to be able to give people the opportunity either to learn how to do project management, which we’re already starting to be able to understand, how to collaborate in a team to be able to get something done, and to be able to use the data to help their own careers.

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