Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: February 9, 2012

Present: Abby Crocker, Kairn Kelley, Rodger Kessler, Ben Littenberg, Charlie MacLean

1. Presentation: Abby requested some feedback on the third deliverable for her dissertation, "Documented Knowledge of Health Policy"

a. Abby's been doing self-directed learning after contacting several health policy schools in the US. She now proposes to follow a piece of legislation (recently proposed by Peter Shumlin to treat opiate adicted people in VT through a "hub and spoke" system with 5 therapy sites in the state) and write a report for her deliverable. Planning details, report focus, contacts of interest, communication style, and IRB concerns were discussed in detail.

b. Charlie mentioned Jan Carney has recently written a course description for a special topics course in Public Health. Although this might not be the most efficient option for Abby, Jan will certainly be interested in Abby's experience.

2. Workshop Goals for 2012:

a. Journal club: identify UVM guests and articles; invite to CROW ahead of time

b. Research updates: share work-in-process

3. Next Workshop Meeting(s): Thursday, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4.

a. Feb 23: Kairn: lit review update (no Amanda or Connie or Rodger)

b. Mar 1: (no Connie, ? Kairn)

c. Mar 8: Early start, for those available, 11:00 – 2:00, Connie’s dissertation defense

d. Mar 15: (no Ben, Connie)

e. Future agenda to consider:

i. Ben: budgeting exercise for grant applications

ii. Rodger: Mixed methods article; article on Behavior’s Influence on Medical Conditions (unpublished); drug company funding. Also: discuss design for PCBH clinical and cost research.

iii. Amanda: presentation and interpretation of data in articles

iv. Sharon Henry: article by Cleland, Thoracic Spine Manipulation, Physical Therapy 2007

v. 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)

Recorder: C. van Eeghen