Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: April 30, 2010

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Apr 30, 2010

Present: Kairn Kelley, Rodger Kessler, Ben Littenberg, Connie van Eeghen (by Skype)

1. Article review: 2004 article from the Journal of Attention Disorders, "A cognitive tool to diagnose predominantly inattentive ADHD behavior."
a. Close analysis revealed that:
i. The article’s title is misleading
ii. The standard error scores were not published; we recalculated two of the eight, of which one showed a lack of significance. This raised questions about competence or full disclosure
iii. The definition of the subjects’ classifications was determined by the hypothesis to prove the hypothesis
b. Conclusion: probably should not have been published as is, although might be useful if recast as the start of an exploratory study

2. Meeting Schedule: Our new meeting schedule starts next week on Wednesday at 2:00 starting – same place.

3. Next Fellows Meeting(s): Wednesday, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4
a. May 5: Rodger to lead discussion (no Kairn)
b. May 12: TBD (no Kairn)
c. May 19: TBD
d. May 26: TBD
e. Future agenda to consider:
i. How to predict medical events effectively (Ben)
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 this time – to be reviewed after trialing Wednesday meeting times

Recorder: Connie van Eeghen

FW: Hands On Bioinformatics Workshop - Call For Participants

From: Vermont Genetics Network [mailto:vgn@uvm.edu]
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 9:31 AM
Subject: Hands On Bioinformatics Workshop - Call For Participants

The Vermont Genetics Network (VGN) and the North East Cyberinfrastructure Consortoium (NECC) invite all interested researchers, from undergraduates to professors, to participate in the Skate Genome Sequence Annotation Workshop.

Learn valuable bioinformatics skills in this five day hands-on bioinformatics workshop. Participants will learn how to use common bioinformatics applications and will gain experience completing hands-on exercises with experienced researchers. The workshop is centered around annotation of the Little Skate genome, a project underway in the NECC, but the skills learned will be broadly applicable.

No previous bioinformatics experience is necessary.

This is an ALL EXPENSES PAID workshop. The Little Skate Genome Sequence project will support up to six researchers from each of five states in the NECC. Awards will cover travel, lodging, meals, registration and all workshop materials.

The workshop will provide an opportunity to meet and network with other researchers in our region. The NECC promotes and supports collaborative research projects across the north east region.

DETAILS

What: Five day hands on workshop covering practical bioinformatics skills applied to genome annotation
When: May 24-28, 2010
Where: Clayton Hall Conference Center, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Who: All interested researchers, from undergraduates to professors

How: ALL EXPENSES ARE PAID
Travel, lodging, meals and all lecture materials will be paid for all participants.

Questions: Contact James.Vincent@uvm.edu<mailto:James.Vincent@uvm.edu>

Apply: To apply please fill out the brief application form:

http://neni.wufoo.com/forms/little-skate-annotation-jamboree-application/

Applicants will be contacted directly upon filling out the above form.

BACKGROUND

http://www.necyberconsortium.org/NECC/Skate_Genome_Sequence_Annotation_Workshop

NECC: http://www.necyberconsortium.org

Skate Genome Sequence Annotation Workshop Overview

The Skate Genome Sequence Annotation Jamboree is the first of three bioinformatics workshops planned to annotate the genome of the little skate, Raja erinacea. The first, one week, intensive workshop will cover all aspects of genome sequence analysis required to annotate eukaryotic genomes. The following two workshops will focus on annotating the emerging skate sequence data and will be held in Oct 2010 at MDIBL and again at University of Delaware in April 2011.

Topics for the first workshop will include:

* Sequence databases and resources

* Sequence similarity analysis

* Next generation genome sequencing

* de novo genome assembly

* Gene prediction

* Phylogenetic analysis

* Protein structure analysis

* Biomedical ontologies

* Genome annotation tools

The skills learned will apply broadly to many areas of research

Workshop organizers from the North East Bioinformatics Consortium are considering applications for up to six participants from each of the states of Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont who are students in undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate programs or work as research professionals. Although not required, your availability to attend at least one other workshop is desired so that you can apply concepts introduced in the first workshop. Successful applicants will receive a travel award to attend the workshop that covers travel, food and lodging.

Workshops are sponsored by the IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) Program from the National Center of Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health.

Fw: Student Research Conference 2010

-Benjamin Littenberg

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From: UVM Faculty & Staff
To: UVMFACULTYSTAFF@LIST.UVM.EDU
Sent: Fri Apr 16 07:14:39 2010
Subject: Student Research Conference 2010

The UVM Student Research Conference (SRC) is a day long event highlighting the quality and breadth of undergraduate, graduate and medical student research being conducted at the University of Vermont.  The purpose of the conference is to promote and facilitate the exchange of interdisciplinary perspectives, and to encourage student intellectual growth. The Conference is scheduled for Thursday, April 22, 2010, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., in the Dudley H. Davis Center.

Over 200 students are participating this year and will be presenting research in disciplines ranging from molecular genetics to environmental science to digital art.  Their work reflects the scholarship that routinely takes place at the University of Vermont, where the opportunity for inquiry and discovery is available to every  student.  Their efforts, and especially the support and direction provided by their faculty mentors, represents the activity of an engaged scholarly community that is central to UVM.

All students working on a research or creative project with a UVM faculty member are eligible to present some aspect of their research at this forum. Research and creative projects at any stage of completion are welcome. The event also serves as a resource for students who are not yet involved with research but wish to learn about how to engage in research pursuits.

The 2010 UVM SRC is co-sponsored by the Graduate College, Honors College, and the Office of the Vice President for Research.  Academic Support Programs include: Center for Teaching and Learning, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Social Services, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, College of Medicine, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Graduate Student Senate, Living/Learning Director's Office, Living/Learning SURF Suite, McNair Scholars Program, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, School of Business Administration, Writing Center, and Writing in the Disciplines Program.

For more information, see the SRC website at www.uvm.edu/~uvmsrc or contact SRC Coordinator Andrea Elledge at uvmsrc@uvm.edu.

 

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

Steve Knight, a student in Reporting Clinical Research, just sent around this nice link to an article in PLoS entitled "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False."  It is a heavily Bayesian argument that makes an awful ot of scary sense!

Thanks, Steve!

How to get help

It feels good to help others, but it feels hard to ask for help. It turns out that asking for help is OK - your colleagues and co-workers (and faculty) will generally lend a hand and won't judge you harshly for it. Quite the opposite!  More details here.

:

MD-PhD Program Research Day

Dear Colleagues:

I am very pleased to announce that the annual MD-PhD Program Research 
Day will be held on Friday July 23 in the Sullivan Classroom (MedEd 
200).  The keynote speaker will be Gyongyi Szabo M.D., Ph.D.  Dr. 
Szabo is an outstanding physician-investigator who directs the 
University of Massachusetts MD-PhD program and has research interests 
in innate immunity and inflammation in fatty liver disorders and in 
chronic hepatitis C.  Additional information about the program 
schedule will be sent to you in an upcoming email.

Please mark your calendars for this important day.  I look forward to 
seeing you there.

Best regards,

Steven Lidofsky

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: April 2, 20010

Present: Matt Bovee, Kairn Kelley, Rodger Kessler, Ben Littenberg, Mike MacCaskey, Connie van Eeghen

1. Start up: Book club – “The Checklist Manifesto” – wrap up
a. What is the book’s value/take-away according to CROW and individual members
i. Not rocket science; why so hard to make this kind of change?
1. Older phase of “life cycle” of health care organizations
2. Second order change comes after first order changes, such as who the leaders are in the bureaucracy
3. Requires time
b. What can or should be done based on the book’s message(s)? How? By whom? For what purpose?
i. Training, multiple times, multiple levels
ii. Knowledge of the “levers” necessary to make change self-sustaining
iii. Attitude
iv. Accountability
c. Connie proposed a “next book” – “Realistic Evaluation” by Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley, SAGE Publications, London, 1997 (ISBN 0 7619 5009 5 [pbk]), promoting qualitative research that includes the context of the study, not just the subjects, in evaluation of results

2. Meeting Schedule: We will change our regular meeting time to Wednesdays at 2:00 starting May 5 – same place.

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

a. Ben: Will review the relationship of death and NHANES study next Friday seminar meeting and gave us a preview today. Come to next week’s noon seminar for the real deal.

4. Next Fellows Meeting(s): April 2, 2010 from 9:30 – 11:00 a.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4
a. April 9: (no Connie or Matt or Rodger) – Kairn’s data
b. April 16: (no Connie or Matt or Rodger) – Abby update?
c. April 23: TBD
d. Future agenda to consider:
i. How to predict medical events effectively (Ben)
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

5. Fellows document – nothing this time

Recorder: Connie van Eeghen

Intentionally unvaccinated - NPR story

Here's an interesting story I heard on NPR about vaccinations. The story touches on a lot of what we talked about in Cell to Society, in relation to the HPV vaccine.

I wasn't aware that a measles outbreak occurred at the Olympics this year!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125570056

Fw: American Health Association Grant Opportunities Overview ~ April 7 ~ On Behalf of Sr Assoc Dean Ira Bernstein

-Benjamin Littenberg

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From: Randall, Maura L
To: COM Faculty List; COM Staff List
Sent: Thu Apr 01 14:08:27 2010
Subject: American Health Association Grant Opportunities Overview ~ April 7 ~ On Behalf of Sr Assoc Dean Ira Bernstein

 

RESEARCH PROGRAMS and GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

 

Susan R. Bishop

AHA Director of Research & Professional Medical Education

 

Mauret Brinser

AHA Executive Director, NH/VT Founder’s Affiliate

 

Wednesday, April 7

12:00 Noon

Health Science Research Facility 300

 

 

Since 1949, the American Heart Association has spent more than $3.2 billion on research to increase knowledge about cardiovascular disease and stroke.  Research is one of the American Heart Association’s top priorities, and we are 2^nd only to the U.S. government in funding cardiovascular disease research. An important role for the American Heart Association is the nurturing of beginning and mid-career investigators, but grant opportunities also are available for senior scientists.

 

The Founder’s Affiliate of the American Heart Association is a regional group – funding research at institutions in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. Over the past two years alone, the Affiliate has provided more than $22 million in new grants to 192 post-docs, beginning scientists and senior scientists.  Although Vermont has done well receiving AHA grants in recent years, we can always improve!  Come to learn from American Heart Association Research staff about the AHA’s research program, grant opportunities and grant-writing tips. Topics to be addressed include:

 

• What kind of research does the American Heart Association fund?  Basic Science, Clinical Science and Population Science
• Why is research funding so important to AHA?
• Grant opportunities available –

(Pre Doctoral Fellowships, Post Doctoral Fellowships, Scientist Development Grants, Grants in Aid, Clinical Research Grants and more)

• Application & Peer Review Process – next application deadline July 2010
• How funding decisions are made
• Resource Information

 

For more information contact Dr. Marilyn Cipolla
at 656-9714 or Marilyn.cipolla@uvm.edu