Clinical and translational science awards and community engagement: now is the time to mainstream prevention into the nation's health research agenda.

Although much attention is devoted to the slow process of cutting-edge "bench science" finding its way to clinical translation, less attention is paid to the fact that basic prevention messages, tests, and interventions never find their way into communities. The NIH Clinical & Translational Science Awards program seeks to address a broad mission of improving health, including both speeding up the incorporation of basic science discoveries throughout the clinical research pipeline and incorporating concerns of communities and practices into research agendas. The preventive medicine community now has an important opportunity to marry their mission of promoting and expanding prevention in communities to the nation's medical research agenda. This article suggests opportunities for collaboration.