Early career awards in cardiovascular research

The Early Career Advisory Committee of the CVRI is pleased to announce a unique funding opportunity for Early Career investigators who are developing new skills and/or who are seeking a novel research experience aimed at developing a career in cardiovascular research.  

Eligibility: 

·         Early career investigators at UVM who are working with a UVM mentor or an external (non-UVM) mentor

·         Early career investigators at external institutions who will be working with a mentor at UVM

·         For the purpose of this funding, early career investigators are considered to be:

o   Undergraduate, Masters, and PhD students

o   2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th year medical students

o   Postdoctoral fellows

o   Residents and clinical fellows

o   Faculty and Staff within 5 years of their first appointment

Funding:  Applications requesting up to $10,000 will be considered. 

For more details and application instructions, please see the attached document. 

The complete application is due by February 15, 2019.

Please contact CVRI-VT@med.uvm.edu if you have any questions. 

Sponsored by the CVRI Early Career Advisory Committee

Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont. 

Words Matter/Having Difficult Conversations - Presearch Professional Network presentation by Emily Tarleton

Topic: Words Matter/Having Difficult Conversations

Level: Advanced

Presenter(s): Alix Rubio (BMC), Nellie Shippen (BMC), and Emily Tarleton (UVM)
Date: Thursday January 24, 2019, 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Location: HSRF 400 Conference Room

Certified research professionals who attend the workshop can receive CEUs for this training from SoCRA or ACRP.

- Ben Littenberg

Spring Data Science Fellowship Opportunity

From: "Michael Li" <michael.li@thedataincubator.org>

Subject: Spring Data Science Fellowship Opportunity - o=

Date: January 3, 2019 at 10:24:19 AM EST

Hi,
I would be extremely grateful if you could forward this opportunity on to masters, PhDs, and postdocs in your department or to post this on your announcement board.

---

Program: The Data Incubator is an intensive 8 week fellowship that prepares masters students, PhDs, and postdocs in STEM and social science fields seeking industry careers as data scientists. The program is free for Fellows and supported by sponsorships from hundreds of employers across multiple industries. In response to the overwhelming interest in our earlier sessions, we will be holding another fellowship.
Who Should Apply: Anyone who has already obtained a masters or PhD degree or who is within one year of graduating with a masters or PhD is welcome to apply. Applications from international students are welcome. Everyone else is encouraged to sign-up for a future session.
Locations: In addition to the below in-person locations, we will have a remote online session:

• New York City
• San Francisco Bay Area
• Boston
• Washington, DC.

Dates: All sections will be from 2019-04-01 to 2019-05-24.
Application Link: https://www.thedataincubator.com/fellowship.html#apply?ref=wbWFsbWFzc2FAdXZtLmVkdQo=
Early Deadline: 2019-01-14.
Regular Deadline: 2019-01-21.
We are assessing and interviewing candidates who apply for the Early Deadline first and then based on remaining availability, will take candidates who applied for the Regular Deadline on a first-come first-serve basis.
Data Science in 30 minutes: Learn how to build a data-science project in our upcoming free Data Science in 30-minutes webcast. Signup soon as space is limited.
Learn More: You can learn about our fellows at The New York Times, LinkedIn, Amazon, Capital One, or Palantir. To read about our latest fellow alumni, check out our blog. To learn more about The Data Incubator, check us out on Venture Beat, The Next Web, or Harvard Business Review.
Sincerely,
Michael
Postdoc, Cornell

How to get free statistical help from UVM College of Medicine

Assistance may include:
 Statistical analysis plan
 Power calculations
 Other study design issues
Up to 5 hours of assistance per grant application is available without charge.*

Note that if
additional hours are required, the usual consultation fees to investigators will apply. It will also
be expected that anything in excess of 5 hours of assistance will result in the inclusion of at least
5% effort for the consulting statistician in the budget of any resulting grant application. If less
effort is required, then a fee for service agreement may be negotiated. The applicant agrees to
provide the Medical Biostatistics/Biometry Facility with electronic copy of any resulting grant
application and budget that are submitted. Only salaried LCOM faculty members or trainees with a primary mentor that is a salaried LCOM faculty member are eligible for this free consultation program. *Funding support from the LCOM Dean’s Office will provide this service on a trial basis for the 2019 calendar year.


For further information or to submit the request form to schedule consultation, please contact
Laura Clayton at 802-656-0633 or Laura.Clayton@uvm.edu

Parachute Study revisited - by scientists who actually carried it out

Curtail your skepticism, please, and be a good scientist and read the details first:

Parachute Study Revisited - NPR Story

Justine Dee's research in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Congratulations to Justine Dee, PT, MS, Assistant Professor of Movement Science, on the recent publication of her work on Medicare policies about physical and occupational therapy for chronic conditions. 

Justine Dee, Benjamin Littenberg. Did Clarification of Medicare Guidelines Change Outpatient Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Usage? A Retrospective Analysis. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Volume 100, Issue 1,2019, Pages 78-85,

Objective: To determine if there was a change in the number of outpatient physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) visits for Medicare beneficiaries, and in the number of beneficiaries receiving extended courses of >12 therapy visits, after the Jimmo vs Sebelius settlement.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) comparing calendar years 2011-2012 to 2014-2015.

Setting: Community in-home survey.

Participants: Medicare Part-B recipients who received outpatient PT/OT (N=1183, median age 70.8) during pre–Jimmo settlement (2011-2012) and post–Jimmo settlement (2014-2015) time periods.

Intervention: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Number of therapy visits/patient/year and number of subjects who received >12 therapy visits/year estimated by linear and logistic regressions controlling for potential confounders (age, body mass index [BMI], and geographic region).

Results: The unadjusted median number of therapy visits/year increased from 7 to 8 after the settlement. Linear regression estimated a 1.02 increase in the number of therapy visits after the settlement (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.23, 1.80; P=.01). The odds of having >12 therapy visits/year increased (odds ratio=1.41; 95% CI 1.02,1.96; P=.04). We observed a significant interaction between race and the effect of the settlement on the odds of having >12 therapy visits (OR 3.64; 95% CI 1.58, 8.39). Non-Hispanic white subjects saw an increase in utilization while a combined group of black, Hispanic and Asian subjects’ utilization declined.

Conclusion: Utilization of outpatient PT/OT changed after the 2013 Jimmo settlement. Further research is needed to determine the effect on patient outcomes and cost.

The full article is available here: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1YGNIwCfyeCb

NIH K-awards

The NIH just released this year's K-award announcement. The K-series allow for 3 to 5 years of protected time to develop the skills and portfolio needed to succeed as a PI. There are specific grants for various levels of training and backgrounds from postdoc to junior faculty to mid-career investigator. You can sort out which one is right for you at  https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/career-development

K-awards are just about the best grants you can get because they support a large fraction of your effort (typically 75% to 100%) for a fairly long time. Protected time being one of the 5 magic ingredients of a successful research career, this is a really good thing! I had a K23 and it made a big difference. They are just about the best way to transition from wannabe investigator to successful independent career PI.

Let me know if you have any questions.

- Ben Littenberg