Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Sept 13, 2012

Present: Abby Crocker, Rodger Kessler, Connie van Eeghen

1.                  Start Up:  We all agree: we love our beautiful home on Given Courtyard 4S!

2.                  Presentation: Abby: Draft Table 1 on her study on infants exposed to opiates in-utero

a.       Abby has written the background and methods sections of her manuscript.  She provided a draft table 1 with 24 variables, each of which may have a different “n” as the denominator value for that variable.  (That is, some birth records are missing some fields of data, and this varies by variable.  Furthermore, some variables are natural subsets, like whether the mother was in treatment or not, and necessarily have smaller n’s.)  These variables are also the predictors in the study she is doing to find predictors of NAS (Neonatal Addiction Syndrome).

b.      The question: what is the best way to present such a long table, especially since the n’s changes so much.  Suggestions:

                                                  i.      Add a column for every variable to present the real n

                                                ii.      Group variables into 4 tables, each representing a concept (infant, environment, mother, substance abuse), with the infant as the starting point

                                              iii.      Tell the story using the tables

c.       We had an ongoing side-bar conversation about how the thinking process necessary to keep all these variables “in focus” might or might not be assisted by using the presentation software Prezi.  Rodger agreed to work through a demo of Prezi and bring it to CROW sometime in the near future.

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

a.       Sept 20: Rodger on Family Medicine Research Project 

b.      Sept 27: Charlie on ways to analyze and understand narcotic prescribing in VT through various data sources and various ways to summarize and present data that are useful to clinicians. This generalizes to other medication categories as well and overlaps with Amanda's Medication Management Project.

c.       Oct 4:

d.      Future agenda to consider:

                                                  i.      Kairn – review of draft article on IRR  

                                                ii.      Ben: budgeting exercise for grant applications; NHANES – lower female mortality for women taking birth control medications

                                              iii.      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.  Also: Prezi demo. 

                                              iv.      Amanda: presentation and interpretation of data in articles

Recorder: Connie van Eeghen