Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Mar 12, 2010

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

Present: Abbey Crocker, Kairn Kelley, Amanda Kennedy, Damon Lease, Ben Littenberg. Mike MacCaskey, Charlie MacLean, Jeff Mogielnicki, Jeff Seward
Absent: Matt Bovee, Abby Crocker, Kim Dittus, Liz Chen, Rodger Kessler, Maria Ramos, Alan Rubin, Connie van Eeghen

1. Start up: Book club – “The Checklist Manifesto”
a. The first half of the session was general discussion about Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto.

2. Roundtable, with update, short term goals, long term goals

a. Kim: provided an update on her research during the second half of our session. The details of all her funded projects, proposals and articles in development, and clinical concerns were too much for this note-taker-after-the-fact to keep up with. Although all work was interesting there was some suggestion by faculty that Kim may need to scale back on something.

b. From the whiteboard during discussion:
Checklist for a Request to a Data Analyst.
All requests for information from an analyst should contain these four details IF, THEN, HOW, and WHEN.
IF= your eligibility criteria (IF the patient had a visit between 1/1/2009 and 12/31/09, received chemo, age 21-65…)
THEN= the variables you want to know about (THEN give me their name, DOB, address…)
HOW= the format you want it in, usually a spreadsheet (either XLS so it can be opened by Microsoft products or CSV, comma separated values, so it can be handled by any text reader)
WHEN= when you need the results
Other helpful hints: provide the terms number (a.k.a., IRB) with the request, plan for the process to be iterative (i.e., expect that what’s returned the first time will be wrong), start by asking for less information (e.g., only the number of patients who fit the criteria or the data for only one month worth of patients) until you’re sure you’ve got the right IF criteria defined.

3. Next Fellows Meeting(s): Mar 12, 2010 from 9:30 – 11:00 a.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4
a. Mar 12: Bookclub; Kim Luebbers – IRB process at UVM
b. Mar 19: Bookclub; Peter Callas on data entry of results
c. Mar 26: bookclub
d. Future agenda to consider:
i. Skype demo: Connie & Matt? Wait until Amanda K is back. Or do twice?
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

4. Fellows document – nothing new this time

Recorder: Kairn Kelley