Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to All and a few words to ponder:

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. - Samuel Johnson

Thanks
Publish Post

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

A major issue in Public Health and Public Policy is "What is the relationship between health and income?" Here is a brilliant presentation that combines in-depth statistical analysis, stunning presentation graphics, and a little Vaudeville to very fine effect. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo

Fwd: FW: Sarah Gillett

Go, Sarah!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Henry, Deborah S." <Deborah.Henry@vtmednet.org>
Date: Dec 14, 2010 8:37 AM
Subject: FW: Sarah Gillett
To: "Benjamin Littenberg (littenbl@gmail.com)" <littenbl@gmail.com>

 

Please join me in congratulating Sarah Gillett. Her abstract, "Inflammation and Risk of Cognitive Decline in Black and White Americans in the Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study," has been accepted for an oral presentation at the Joint Conference -  Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions, scheduled March 22 -25, 2010 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

This is wonderful news. Congratulations Sarah!

 

Amanda G. Kennedy, PharmD, BCPS
Research Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of Vermont Center for Clinical and Translational Science
www.uvm.edu/~ccts

Director, The Vermont Academic Detailing Program
University of Vermont Office of Primary Care
www.vtad.org

 

 

Fwd: Potential Funding Opportunity - Forwarded on behalf of Dr. Charles Irvin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "St. Gelais, Laurie A." <Laurie.St.Gelais@vtmednet.org>
Date: Dec 13, 2010 3:04 PM
Subject: Potential Funding Opportunity - Forwarded on behalf of Dr. Charles Irvin
To: "Benjamin Littenberg (littenbl@gmail.com)" <littenbl@gmail.com>

 

The following is forwarded to you on behalf of Dr. Charles Irvin:

 

From: Distribution List for COBRE Program Grantees [mailto:COBRE-L@LIST.NIH.GOV] On Behalf Of Arora, Krishan (NIH/NCRR) [E]
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2010 11:37 AM
To: COBRE-L@LIST.NIH.GOV
Subject: Potential Funding Opportunity

 

FYI. Please share it with interested scholars and faculty in your programs. Thanks,

• Pre-Solicitation Announcement: The Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program
  (NOT-OD-11-030)
  National Institutes of Health
  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-030.html

"The program will support a small number of exceptional clinical researchers in the early stages of their careers to promote their development to fully independent positions….." 

 

____________________________

Krishan K. Arora, Ph.D.

Health Scientist Administrator

Division of Research Infrastructure

National Center for Research Resources

National Institutes of Health

Department of Health and Human Services

6701 Democracy Boulevard

Room 938 - MSC 4874

Bethesda, MD 20892-4874

 

Telephone: (301) 435-0760

Fax:          (301) 480-3770

E-Mail:  arorak@mail.nih.gov

 

 

 

Fwd: *IMPORTANT* INFORMATION REGARDING CHANGES IN IRB PROCEDURES

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Donna Silver <dsilver@uvm.edu>
Date: Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 9:10 AM
Subject: *IMPORTANT* INFORMATION REGARDING CHANGES IN IRB PROCEDURES
To: irb@uvm.edu

Hello,

Next week we will begin forwarding, via email, IRB correspondence from the InfoEd system.  To help you identify these emails, the subject line will begin with the word "IRB" followed by the protocol number.  Example below:

IRB Clarification for M10-001

IRB Continuing Review for M10-001 and so on

Please do not disregard these emails as we will not be sending hard copies of the correspondence that have been emailed to you.

You may reply via email to any correspondence that you have received via email from us. However, at this time, any new submissions of any type still require paper copies to be submitted for review due to limitations of the current version of our software. Paper submission instructions are located on our forms web page at:   http://www.uvm.edu/~iacuc/?Page=iacucforms/iacucforms.html

Thank you and please don't hesitate to contact us with any problems or concerns. The earlier we are made aware of any problems with this process the sooner we can address them.

--  Donna Silver, Assistant Program Director University of Vermont Research Protections Office 245 South Park, Suite 900 Colchester, VT 05446 Donna.Silver@uvm.edu 802-656-5040

Fwd: Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration - Thursday, January 27, 2011

Fwd: Attention Scholars and Trainees! Reminder Submit your Abstract for the 2011 ACRT/SCTS Annual Meeting

Attention Scholars and Trainees - Call for Abstracts! Quick Links Who We Are Submit An Abstract Program Highlights Hotel Scholars and Trainees Get Recognized for Your Research: ACRT/SCTS Call for Abstracts Open http://acrtscts2011.abstractcentral.com/ Abstract Deadline: Thursday, December 16   2011 Clinical and Translational Research and Education Meeting ACRT/SCTS Joint Annual Meeting April 27-29, 2011 Omni Shoreham, Washington, DC  The Clinical and Translational Research and Education Meeting boasts integration between disciplines and shared successes from bench to bedside-Embracing the Full Spectrum of Translational Research. Make sure your research is recognized by the clinical and translational science community and submit your abstract today. We encourage the submission of abstracts that show collaboration across disciplines. Abstracts from the following categories will be accepted:  Clinical Epidemiology Clinical Trials Ethics Health Services Research Outcomes Research Translational Basic-to-Clinical Don't miss this opportunity to have your research reviewed by senior investigators and leaders in clinical and translational science!  Submit and abstract   Thursday, December 16 is the final abstract deadline; abstracts received after midnight on December 16 will not be accepted. Abstracts from the 2011 Clinical and Translational Research and Education Meeting will be published in Clinical and Translational Science; therefore, we must adhere to our abstract deadline in order to meet our publication deadline.   See you in Washington, DC!

Fwd: Informatics Grand Rounds - Tuesday, December 14th 4PM-5PM

INFORMATICS GRAND ROUNDS

"ADVANCED INFORMATICS FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT AND RESEARCH: ENHANCED REGISTRIES TO CREATE A LEARNING HEALTH CARE SYSTEM"

Richard B. Colletti, MD (Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont; Vermont Children's Hospital, Fletcher Allen Health Care)

Keith Marsolo, PhD (Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati)

Date/Time:        

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Location:    

Medical Education Center Room 300 (Reardon Classroom)

(For remote attendees: http://jadeweb.streamguys.com/~uvm/jwplayer/live.html)

Abstract:   

We will describe a project that was recently funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).  A learning healthcare system comprises a community of front-line clinicians, patients, and scientists who view each clinical encounter as an opportunity to learn and to improve patient outcomes.  In its most advanced state, it combines comparative effectiveness (CE) research with quality improvement (QI) science to ensure the delivery of new knowledge at the point of care. Electronic health records have the potential to become the tool for learning at the point-of-care, although most are patient-focused and do not natively support the population management required by a learning healthcare system. Registries are designed to do this, but generally operate independently of institutional EHRs. Over the next 3 years, we will work to change this by building upon existing open-source software to create a modular, versatile, and scalable registry that can be populated by EHRs. We will test its ability to support QI and CE research within the ImproveCareNow practice-based research and improvement initiative. Our specific aims are to: (Aim 1) enhance an existing registry to support a learning healthcare system for pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) by capturing needed data directly from electronic health records, improving the quality of collected data using new tools we have developed for recording clinical data during a patient encounter, and facilitating interventions to improve the quality of care for children; (Aim 2) use quality improvement methods to implement enhanced IBD-registry features to enable management of IBD care center populations and increase patient participation in care; (Aim 3) use data from the enhanced registry to compare the effectiveness of alternative treatment strategies for pediatric Crohn's Disease patients, with a special focus on timing of biologic agents; (Aim 4) develop governance structures for the network that engages patients and provides oversight of privacy, confidentiality, and data access, as well as scientific and technical concerns. The project will form a unique community of children, families, clinicians, informaticians, QI specialists, and CE researchers who work together to improve patient outcomes using learning healthcare system principles. Our long-term goal is to extend this work to other chronic disease communities devoted to advancing the health of children.

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Richard B. Colletti is the Vice-Chair for Clinical and Research Affairs and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont, and the Associate Chief of Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care.  He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and completed his residency at Yale University and his fellowship at Texas Children's Hospital, Houston.  He is actively engaged in quality improvement and research in pediatric Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and is the Network Director of the national ImproveCareNow Collaborative.  He has been the President of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN), on the Board of Directors of the Children's Digestive Health and Nutrition Foundation, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Federation of International Societies for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.  He has co-authored over 90 papers, book chapters and monographs, including five evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, and has given over 140 national and international presentations.   

Dr. Keith Marsolo is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and is the Director of Data Warehousing and Software Development in the Division of Biomedical Informatics.  He holds a PhD in computer science from The Ohio State University and is an expert in data mining and biological data modeling. Dr. Marsolo is leading the implementation of a research data warehouse at Cincinnati Children's based on the i2b2 informatics framework, as well as development efforts to expand the capabilities of i2b2 to make it a suitable platform for patient registries. As head of Software Development, Dr. Marsolo and his team focus primarily on developing systems for electronic data capture and reporting, creating collaborative Web sites for clients within the Research Foundation, and developing applications in support of grant-funded research.

Other Links:

ImproveCareNow

i2b2 Research Data Warehouse at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Division of Biomedical Informatics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Informatics Grand Rounds is a joint initiative between the University of Vermont (Center for Clinical and Translational Science Informatics Unit, Continuing Education, and Dana Medical Library), Fletcher Allen Health Care, and the State of Vermont.

http://ccts.uvm.edu/web/informatics/grandrounds

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Nov 5, 2010

Present: Abby Crocker, Kairn Kelley, Ben Littenberg, Charlie MacLean, Carole McBride, Connie van Eeghen

1. Round Table:

a. Fall schedule to continue, but Connie will not be back to Workshop until 2011. See the bottom of this posting for a schedule of dates, holiday cancellations, and scholars leading discussion.

b. Spring schedule proposed around Thursdays or Fridays; Abby to send out Doodle poll; focus is Thursdays 9 – 10 or Thursdays 2:30 – 4:00 or Fridays 1:30 – 4:00 as likely choices.

c. Connie was allowed to experiment with a hands on presentation exercise and got great feedback

2. Abby’s Topic

a. More published studies about weaning babies born with drug dependency

b. Predicting which kids need help is a good study question that has current data to support it. The research question is ~ “What are the prenatal characteristics that could predict requiring treatment?” Or “What are the prenatal predictors of NAS among women using narcotics pre-natally?” This is novel and important (relevant).

i. Reasons this is valuable: more appropriate prenatal treatment, better quality of life for baby and parents

ii. Outcome variable: did babies need treatment (not Finnegan score)

iii. Predictor variables (based on lit review): gestational age at time of delivery, gestational age at onset of prenatal care, maternal opiate treatment type (methadone or bupenorphine), abuse of Schedule 2 drugs (or prescribed drugs that were not prescribed), infant’s sex, infant’s birth weight, breast feeding or breast milk in hospital, plan to continue to breast feed, parity (live births), gravity (pregnancies), and maternal age. Others to consider: partner/spouse, employment, smoking, ETOH use, institution of treatment, date.

iv. Analytic plan:

1. Univariate analysis on just the drugs: prescribed vs. street drugs (with or without interactions). This tests the hypothesis that the drugs matter and their potencies may be different.

2. Best prediction model: use the current data set to develop a model using any/all criterion/a to create it. For another study, test the model using a new data set OR separate the data sets into two groups and use one set to develop the model and the other to test it. The FAHC population =~550 patients; others may be available.

3. Talk to clinical experts to help sort out the most significant variables.

c. Caring for these kids is a separate question and a good future study

3. Next Workshop Meeting(s): Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4

a. Nov 12: Abby to lead discussion (no Connie, Amanda, Rodger)

b. Nov 19: Abby to lead discussion (no Connie, Rodger)

c. Nov 26: Cancelled

d. Dec 3: Abby to lead discussion (no Connie, Rodger)

e. Dec 10: Abby to lead discussion (no Connie, Rodger)

f. Dec 17: Rodger to lead discussion (no Connie)

g. Dec 24: Cancelled

h. Dec 31: Cancelled

i. Future agenda to consider:

i. Rodger: Mixed methods article; article on Behavior’s Influence on Medical Conditions (unpublished)

ii. Future: Review of different types of journal articles (lit review, case study, original article, letter to editor…), when each is appropriate, tips on planning/writing (Abby)

iii. Future: Informed consent QI: Connie to follow up with Nancy Stalnaker, Alan Rubin will follow up with Alan Wortheimer or Rob McCauly

iv. Kairn will ask a librarian to join us for selected issues

4. Fellows document – to be reviewed in the future. We trialed Wednesday meeting times, which started May 5, 2010 and continued until August 25, 2010. We returned to Friday meetings on Sept 3, 2010

Recorder: Connie van Eeghen

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Oct 29, 2010

Present: Rodger Kessler, Ben Littenberg, Charlie MacLean, Connie van Eeghen

1. Round Table: The complexities of grant administration between departments are amazing.

2. Rodger’s Data

a. Past article submission has been returned with suggestions; new data from an additional site has meantime become available. May turn the paper into a “Brief Report” for the journal where it is under review. Two ways to look at incorporating the data from the additional site:

i. Compare the two sites, at least at a relatively simple level, to show that this approach worked in both

ii. Explain the two sites as a progression of implementing the same approach in two different practices with successful outcomes.

1. The sites are three years apart in time; this was the outcome of the practical issues around setting up the sites with this model. The message should be “you can do this in your practice,” so currency of data and process is important.

iii. Be able to discuss some of the details of patient condition: primary and secondary diagnoses, co-morbidities, payer mix, zip code, income, referrer (through the insurance claim), etc.

iv. Regardless of which strategy above is used, the journal will probably push for side by side comparisons. Anticipate questions that can’t be answered because of limits to generalizations preemptively, by stating that these limits exist and identifying the need for future studies.

b. AHRQ funded R24, “Connect” has two steps

i. Enroll practices, linked to EHR data abstraction and National Research Network “DARTnet” which has hooked up practices and pulled data (not MH data), in a collaborative around MH. Goal: enroll 30-40 organizations, some with multiple sites, with a goal of 100 sites in total. Ben Miller is the PI. Goal: can the data be abstracted?

ii. Descriptive data study, supported by DARTnet subcontractor, looking for practices with MH services on site that can be compared to other DARTnet practices not in the CCRN collaborative. Goal: is there a difference in the treatment conditions?

1. Identifies MH services that have been initiated based on diagnoses from the problem list – although this is still being sorted out with DARTnet. Not sure if the clinician providing the MH services matters (BH clinician or PCP).

2. The eligible population (i.e. the denominator for the study) is under question: a set of behavioral health and medical diagnoses provided by a list which has been true for the patient for an undetermined period of time.

3. Outcomes research study is outside the scope of this study and an important future study.

4. That there was a referral is one item to track; another is identifying the outcome of that referral, a.k.a. “treatment initiation” (which is a question that may be answerable only by the patient) or “care process” (which could include a range of steps that might include medication, counseling, and have a range of sources for collecting data). However, the only source of data available are through DARTnet as part of this step of the study.

3. Next Workshop Meeting(s): Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4

a. Nov 5: Abby: update on research study.

b. Nov 12: (no Connie)

c. Nov 19: (no Connie)

d. Nov 26: (day after Thanksgiving – cancel?)

e. Dec 3: (no Connie)

f. Dec 10: (no Connie)

g. Dec 17: (no Connie)

h. Dec 24: ???

i. Dec 31: ???

j. Future agenda to consider:

i. Rodger: Mixed methods article; article on Behavior’s Influence on Medical Conditions (unpublished)

ii. Future: Review of different types of journal articles (lit review, case study, original article, letter to editor…), when each is appropriate, tips on planning/writing (Abby)

iii. Future: Informed consent QI: Connie to follow up with Nancy Stalnaker, Alan Rubin will follow up with Alan Wortheimer or Rob McCauly

iv. Kairn will ask a librarian to join us for selected issues

4. Fellows document – to be reviewed in the future. We trialed Wednesday meeting times, which started May 5, 2010 and continued until August 25, 2010. We returned to Friday meetings on Sept 3, 2010

Recorder: Connie van Eeghen

Fwd: AHRQ Health IT Update--New Report on Health IT and Workflow Redesign

New Report Examines Impacts of Health IT on Workflow in Outpatient Settings

 

AHRQ released a new summary report, Incorporating Health IT into Workflow Redesign, prepared by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement. The report summarizes existing research and evidence related to the impact of health IT on workflow in outpatient settings. Key information obtained from the research will be incorporated into a toolkit to assist small and medium-sized practices in workflow analysis and redesign before, during, and after health IT implementation. The toolkit, Workflow Assessment for Health IT, is expected to be available in January 2011. Select to access the Incorporating Health IT into Workflow Redesign Summary Report (PDF file; PDF Help) and the associated appendix, Incorporating Health IT Into Workflow Redesign Summary Report Appendix F: Tool Compendium (PDF file; PDF Help).

You are subscribed to Health IT for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

Jennifer Otten and Dr. Oz

TV docs Mehmet C. Oz, MD, and Michael F. Roizen, MD picked up the wonderful research Jenifer Otten did when she was a PhD student here. Here it is on their blog YOU Docs Daily.

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Oct 21, 2010

Present: Abby Crocker, Ben Littenberg, Connie van Eeghen, and three guests from our affiliate hospital in Danbury, CT

1. Round Table: Welcome to our guests; introductions all around.

2. Connie’s Presentation

a. Connie provided a two page overview of a 90 minute presentation she has been invited to give to the Northern New England American Healthcare Executives annual regional conference over lunch during their last conference day in November. She presented the first third of that presentation; excellent feedback followed including:

i. Move presentation to more visual images; fewer words. This includes images of where the listeners imagination should be welcome to go, like a real “battlefield.” Find images that represent the “fact,” not the words that explain the fact.

ii. Don’t make a story longer than necessary; “visiting professor” is sufficient rather than the full background of the source of a story. Do add details that fill out the story: did the staff have high school diplomas?

iii. Move more quickly to the “after” message: what difference did “Lean” make? What changed? Get to the conclusion.

iv. Acknowledge the questions in the listener’s mind: what’s the staff time? The investment? How is this different that FMEA or PDSA or TQM?

v. Consider a case study with a well documented outcome.

b. Many thanks to all for your time and input!

3. Next Workshop Meeting(s): Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4

a. Oct 29: Rodger: data presentation issues for a paper

b. Nov 5: Abby?

c. Future agenda to consider:

i. Rodger: Mixed methods article; article on Behavior’s Influence on Medical Conditions (unpublished)

ii. Future: Review of different types of journal articles (lit review, case study, original article, letter to editor…), when each is appropriate, tips on planning/writing (Abby)

iii. Future: Informed consent QI: Connie to follow up with Nancy Stalnaker, Alan Rubin will follow up with Alan Wortheimer or Rob McCauly

iv. Kairn will ask a librarian to join us for selected issues

4. Fellows document – to be reviewed in the future. We trialed Wednesday meeting times, which started May 5, 2010 and continued until August 25, 2010. We returned to Friday meetings on Sept 3, 2010

Recorder: Connie van Eeghen

Fwd: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Update

 

BRFSS 28^th Annual Conference

SAVE THE DATE

March 19-23, 2011

Grand Hyatt Buckhead

Atlanta, Georgia

 

This year's theme:

BRFSS: State-Based Health Surveillance Meeting Local Data Needs

 

Please contact Judith Wellen at (404) 498-0521 or apn0@cdc.gov with questions

 

You are subscribed to Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

MALAYAKA HOUSE

The Global Health Student Interest Group

Invites you to

A Screening of the Documentary Film

MALAYAKA HOUSE

Friday, November 5, 2010

12:00noon ~ Sullivan Classroom - MedEd200

This is the remarkable story of how Robert Fleming, a Burlington native,
fell into establishing an orphanage, Malayaka House,  in Uganda, and its
current status.   Nick Phillips, a first year medical student is
developing a project through the Global Health Student Interest Group to
help improve the health and health care for a network of orphanages in
Uganda.

All are welcome, bagels and juice will be served.  Please RSVP to Nick
Phillips '14 Nicholas.g.phillips@uvm.edu for his food ordering.

STATA 11

If you have been using STATA version 10 on the FAHC shared drive, you should now be able to access STATA 11 at S:\Apps\Stata\Stata11.

Ben

Lessons Learned and Opportunities for the Future of Behavioral Health Services - Call for Abstracts

Drug and alcohol addiction and mental health disorders are prevalent, often go untreated, and if treated, the process of care for these conditions often does not meet basic quality standards. Receiving adequate service for behavioral health disorders is especially acute in the most vulnerable and needy groups, including older populations, racial/ethnic minorities, persons with lower educational levels, and those with early onset of behavioral health disorders. These groups often delay seeking care, or seek care in the general healthcare sector rather than in specialty mental health service settings.

The lack of attention to behavioral healthcare conditions contributes to global disease burden and is a significant cause of disability. It is now well-recognized that the co-occurrence of DAAMH and general medical disorders is high, and comorbidity and mortality increase when conditions co-occur, often resulting in the utilization of acute medical services. A focus on disparities in service access and delivery has increased over the past decade, even predating the IOM’s 2003 report entitled Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care.

Emphasizing the need for a coordinated focus in research addressing healthcare disparities, The National Institutes of Health recently (September, 2010) announced the transition of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) to the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). The NIMHD will plan, coordinate, review, and evaluate minority health and health disparities research activities conducted and supported by the NIH institutes and centers.

To further emphasize the need to prioritize research examining behavioral healthcare disparities, this conference seeks to examine investigative efforts focused on

 *   Disparities in behavioral healthcare service access and delivery
 *   Innovative strategies to decrease disparities in diverse populations (gender-based, racial/ethnic minorities) and settings (rural vs. urban; primary and mental healthcare)
 *   Disparities in general health care access occurring as the result of the presence of a behavioral healthcare condition
 *   Issues of stigma and cultural salience as they impact service access and delivery, and
 *   Healthcare policy and legislative changes impacting behavioral health service disparities.

This scientific conference will encourage linkages between the often separate areas of behavioral services research into a more integrative behavioral health services research (BHSR) platform and will emphasize the a ‘key theme’ of the National Healthcare Disparities Report (AHRQ, 2009) related to service disparities experienced by persons with mental health and substance use disorders.

In this third year of a 3-year NIDA R13 scientific conference grant (with additional support provided by NIMH and NIAAA), conference organizers will continue their effort to 1) develop a collaborative and strategic research agenda to improve access to and the quality of behavioral healthcare to people (across the life span) who suffer from drug abuse, problematic alcohol use, and mental health problems, and, 2) engage and partner researchers and other key stakeholders such as afflicted individuals, families, providers, policymakers, and communities to contribute to and implement a quality improvement agenda. A ‘virtual collaboratory’ will also be used to connect conference participants and to encourage and support the development of new research teams.

Currently there is no one place for addictions, mental health and alcohol services researchers to meet exclusively and at one time on shared priority topics germane to behavioral health services research (BHSR). No professional group or association for BHSR exists. Common problems abound and often work does not cross the disciplines, so this 2011 scientific conference will highlight innovative strategies that explore and address the issue of services disparities in the delivery of behavioral healthcare focusing on a broad range of research examining

 *   ‘State of the Art’ interventions developed to close the gap in disparities
 *   The roles different settings, including homes, schools, and workplaces, can play in creating and changing disparities
 *   Patient-provider interactions as they contribute to or ameliorate disparities
 *   Community-based participatory research on service disparities
 *   The role of cultural competence in addressing disparities
 *   Improvements in the measurement of service disparities and impacts, and,
 *   Healthcare financing, legislation, and policy changes as they influence service disparities.

The conference will be held in Arlington, VA on April 6-7, 2011 with post-conference methods workshops on morning of April 8th. The Ritz Carlton Pentagon City (Arlington, VA) will be the setting for this year’s meeting. Individual paper, poster, think tank and symposia abstracts are being solicited. Significant networking opportunities will be available and students may apply for a limited pool of travel stipends. Please consider submitting an abstract to the conference through our website at http://bhsr.fmhi.usf.edu<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=mxxqjaeab&et=1103840692157&s=1021&e=0016k55-HwCeDF3ykqBoX6OaqqfdbqliE2QIQcsmIUtZfo_sj1IkO7Lt_ma96BCk09-GHEGpwk1WP1bB47BJNqh3qg6xifQnCKQcVshKmi1vWPiXbKWEBth5w==>

All abstract submissions MUST be received by December 3, 2010 at 5pm EST.

Sincerely,

Margarita Alegría, PhD
Scientific Conference Chair,
Director, Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research
Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Junius Gonzales, MD, MBA
University of South Florida, R13 Principal Investigator

Trawling the brain

Tim Tourville found this very interesting article in ScienceNews and sent it along for our consideration. It points out that the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), the spectacular imaging tool that has revealed so much about the connections between neural activity, neuroanatomy, and behavior, is prone to some very serious problems of interpretation.

That is a great little article. It pretty much has the whole of inferential statistics in there, including the the ecological fallacy ("Mass Effects" in the article), trade-offs between sensitivity and specificity ("arguing that these protections shouldn’t be so strong that the real results are tossed too, like a significant baby with the statistical bathwater"), and simple Type 1 error.

Thoughts?

Ben

Fwd: Mary Ann Handel, PhD, Jackson Laboratory Senior Research Scientist ~ Lecture November 3 - 6:00pm

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Randall, Maura L" <Maura.Randall@uvm.edu>
Date: Oct 21, 2010 10:01 AM
Subject: Mary Ann Handel, PhD, Jackson Laboratory Senior Research Scientist ~ Lecture November 3 - 6:00pm
To: "COM Faculty List" <AllCOMFaculty@med.uvm.edu>, "ClassOf2011" <ClassOf2011@med.uvm.edu>, "ClassOf2012" <ClassOf2012@med.uvm.edu>, "ClassOf2013" <ClassOf2013@med.uvm.edu>, "ClassOf2014" <ClassOf2014@med.uvm.edu>, "COM Grad Students" <COMGradStudents@med.uvm.edu>
Cc: "Lemire, Rita" <Rita.Lemire@uvm.edu>, "Randall, Maura L" <Maura.Randall@uvm.edu>

Mary Ann Handel, Ph.D.

The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine



"Mutagenesis:  An Unbiased Strategy for Identification of Novel
Fertility Genes"



Wednesday, November 3, 2010,

Medical Education Center 200, Sullivan Classroom



Lecture  ~  6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Poster Viewing & Reception  ~   7:00 pm - 8:00 pm



Presented by Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive
Sciences





The Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences is
pleased to announce that Dr. Mary Ann Handel, Senior Research Scientist
from The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, will be presenting at
the College of Medicine.



Immediately following Dr. Handel's presentation there will be a
reception and viewing of posters by OB/GYN faculty and staff focusing on
many related areas of research interest.



Faculty, researchers, trainees and students interested in mutagenesis,
reproductive biology and health are invited to attend.

Fwd: REMINDER-NIH Extramural LRP Application Deadline is November 15 - forwarded on behalf of Dr. Charles Irvin

 

Apply Online Now for Possible Awards of Up to $35,000 Annually

 

The NIH is accepting applications for its extramural Loan Repayment Programs now through 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on November 15, 2010.

 

These programs often allow scientific investigators to remain in the research workforce, achieve research independence and focus their efforts on advancing the health of the nation. Opportunities are available in clinical research, pediatric research, health disparities research, contraception and infertility research, and clinical research for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. Each year, some 1,600 research scientists benefit from the more than $70 million NIH invests in their careers through the extramural LRPs. 

 

Please share this e-mail with researchers in your organization who may benefit from the NIH LRPs. The November 15 deadline is quickly approaching. Health professionals who have started an online application should complete it now, and those who have not yet started should visit www.lrp.nih.gov to learn more about the programs and apply.

 

BENEFITS: New LRP contracts are awarded for a two-year period and repay up to $35,000 of qualified educational debt each year. Tax offsets also are provided as an additional benefit. Participants may apply for competitive renewals, which are issued for one or two years. Undergraduate, graduate, medical school, and other health professional school loans qualify for repayment. An NIH grant or other NIH funding is not required to apply for or participate in the LRPs. 

 

ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must possess a doctoral-level degree (with the exception of the Contraception and Infertility Research LRP); be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident; devote 20 hours or more per week to conducting qualified research funded by a domestic nonprofit, university, or government entity; and have qualified educational loan debt equal to or exceeding 20 percent of their institutional base salary.

 

For guidance on the application process and NIH Institute and Center (IC) research priorities, potential applicants should review "Tips for Completing a Competitive Application" at http://www.lrp.nih.gov/pdf/0310_1_application_tips.pdf and contact an IC LRP liaison. The list of ICs and their liaisons can be found at http://www.lrp.nih.gov/contact_us/contact_list.aspx

 

QUESTIONS? Visit the LRP website at www.lrp.nih.gov for more information and to access the online application. For additional assistance, call or e-mail the LRP Information Center at (866) 849-4047 or lrp@nih.gov. Also, receive application cycle updates through Twitter @NIH_LRP or www.twitter.com/NIH_LRP.