Children and Clinical Studies
Spring 2008 Newsletter Article
Membership of the Executive Committee of the Research Committee now includes: Benard Dreyer, Peter Szilagyi, Gretchen Caspary, Bill Cooper, Ruth Etzel, Glenn Flores, Jim Guevera, Donna Halloran, Larry Kleinman, Chris Landrigan, Janet Serwint, Shirley Russ, Mark Schuster, Karen Wilson, and Whitney Witt. The Executive Committee typically has monthly conference calls as well as subcommittees that work on individual activities throughout the year. Connie Mackay, the Associate Director of the National Office of the APA, has provided a great deal of support to the Executive Committee. Thanks Connie!
Please join us at our Annual Research Committee Meeting at PAS in Hawaii, on Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 11:00 am.
Here are some of the present activities of the Research Committee:
Young Investigators Grant (YIG)
The latest cycle of YIGs has recently ended. The Committee has put together NIH-style study sections to review all submitted proposals. This year these study sections shepherded a record number of applications, 57, through a two-step process that led to the acceptance of seven proposals. After initial short proposals (2-page Letters of Intent) were reviewed by a study section, 20 applicants were chosen to submit longer proposals. The proposals are split into two groups for consideration: general grants supported by APA funding, and health services research/quality improvement grants funded with support from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The general grant proposals were then reviewed by a study group led by Benard Dreyer, and the AHRQ grant proposals were reviewed by a study group led by Bill Cooper, with active involvement of AHRQ’s Denise Dougherty. We are grateful to Michael Cabana, Bob Jacobson, Lisa Simpson, and David Wood, who, in addition to members of the Executive Committee and Denise Dougherty, were reviewers in these study sections. The winners, in alphabetical order, are:
General Grants:
Samantha Berkule: “The Impact of a Relationship-Based Pediatric Primary Care Intervention on Attachment Security in Low Socioeconomic Status Families”
Deepa Camenga: “Transitioning Teenagers with Asthma from Pediatric Care”
Tumaini Coker: “Developing a New Model for Well-Child Care: Views from the Payors”
Megumi Okumura: “Perspectives in Transitioning: A Qualitative Study of Youth with Chronic Conditions in San Francisco”
Health Services Research (AHRQ) Grants:
Jill Baumgartner: “Effects of environmental tobacco smoke exposure on blood pressure in children and adolescents”
Renee Boyton-Jarrett: “The Social Ecology of Adolescent Obesity: The Role of Adverse Social Settings and Social Stress”
Karen Farst: “Trends in child maltreatment hospitalizations in young children from 1997-2005”
New Young Investigator Grants (YIG) funded by the Commonwealth Fund and focusing on developmental and preventive outcomes of 0-5 year-olds
The Commonwealth Fund is funding a new Young Investigator Grant program in conjunction with the APA that will focus on developmental and preventive outcomes for 0-5 year olds as part of pediatric primary and "well-child" care. The program will also have a career development-mentoring component as well as support for research. A call for proposals went out January 15th, and a two step review process is underway. APA Board member and Chair of the Healthcare Delivery Committee, Cynthia Minkovitz, was instrumental in the successful creation of this program. Thanks to Cynthia and to Ed Schor, Vice President for Child Development and Preventive Care at the Commonwealth, for their vision and support. The Research Committee will be overseeing this YIG process.
2008 APA Research Award –Jim Perrin
This year, with five nominated candidates and after deliberation by a review committee made up of previous Research Awardees, James Perrin was chosen as this year’s Research Awardee. James M. Perrin is professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Division of General Pediatrics and the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children, a research and training center with an active fellowship program in general pediatrics. His research has examined asthma, middle ear disease, children’s hospitalization, and childhood chronic illness and disabilities, with a recent emphasis on studies of the Supplemental Security Income Program for children and adolescents and primary and subspecialty care for children with chronic illness. Jim is the founding editor of Ambulatory Pediatrics, the journal of the Academic Pediatric Association. The award will be presented to Jim at the PAS Annual meeting in Hawaii. Much deserved congratulations to Jim!
Evaluation of the YIG Program
We have started an evaluation of the YIG program. Karen Wilson has volunteered to head up that evaluation. We will be surveying previous awardees to determine the impact of the YIG program on their careers. Since the major goal of the YIG program is to support and promote the careers of young investigators, we think this evaluation will help access how successful it has been, and hopefully encourage additional funding. Karen has spearheaded the creation of a survey tool and is presently surveying YIG awardees.
Evaluation of the PAS Abstract Review Process
The APA Research Committee submitted an abstract to this year’s PAS meeting based on its extensive review of the PAS abstract review process. The abstract, entitled “PAS Abstract Reviews: Is Interrater Agreement High Enough to Lead to Fair and Reliable Allocation to Presentation Categories?” will be presented as a Platform Presentation at the Health Services Research Plenary Session I, Saturday May 3, 2008. Please join us all there for a stimulating discussion.
Research Networks
The Research Committee continues to work with Janet Serwint, who directs CORNET (Continuity Research Network), and Chris Landrigan, who directs PRIS (Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings) to help support their important efforts.
Membership
If you have an interest in joining our committee, please contact me! All APA members are invited, from trainees to senior faculty. We have a monthly conference call during the year for our Executive Committee which is open to anyone interested in year long involvement, as well as subcommittees working on specific projects!
If you are interested,
or have any questions, contact me at bpd1@nyu.edu
Written by:
Benard P. Dreyer, MD
Previous newsletters: Click
here
|
