Category: Topics

The Translational Informatics Infrastructure in South Carolina

The Biomedical Informatics Center (BMIC) at MUSC was established as a program in 2008 as part of research infrastructure development and investment by MUSC and Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC). The BMIC includes a dedicated team of Informatics faculty and staff who work on research and operations projects across the state. The team has been […]

Health Policy at the Ground Level: The Impact of Marketplace Guides on Healthcare Utilization

In response to provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that became effective in 2014, Christiana Care Health System (CCHS) hired 12 market place guides (MPGs) to assist eligible uninsured individuals with enrollment in insurance and provide referrals to meet patients’ healthcare needs. Policy experts predicted that new insurance coverage would lead […]

Implementing a Mid-Trial Adaptation in a Stroke Clinical Trial: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The use of adaptive designs has been increasing in randomized clinical trials. Sample size re-estimation is a type of adaptation in which nuisance parameters are estimated at an interim point in the trial and the sample size re-computed based on these estimates. However, post-hoc evaluations of the adaptation, including sample size re-estimation, have not frequently […]

Faculty Mentoring in Challenging Times

These are challenging times in academic medicine – faculty are under enormous pressure to generate more revenue through clinical care or grant funding in very competitive environments at the same time that administrative demands and regulatory requirements keep increasing. This has made it increasingly difficult for faculty to find time to teach and maintain scholarly […]

Kids Safe and Smokefree: A Multilevel Intervention Model to Address Child Tobacco Smoke Exposure and Parental Smoking in Underserved Communities

Low-income and underserved populations have higher smoking rates, greater challenges in quitting smoking, and bear greater tobacco-related morbidity/mortality risk than the general population. More intensive interventions are needed to address this ongoing public health priority. This presentation will describe a recently completed trial that combined a pediatric systems-level intervention with a pragmatic, individualized intervention. We […]

Smoking Cessation and Relapse Prevention during Pregnancy and Continuing Care Postpartum

In spite of the well-established negative health implications of tobacco smoking during pregnancy on mother and unborn child, 15.4% of pregnant women report smoking in the past month. Approximately one-third of women who smoke prior to pregnancy quit spontaneously during pregnancy, but up to 60% relapse within the first six months postpartum. This presentation will […]

The Role of Mentorship in Research

Mentoring is widely recognized as a critical pillar in the development of researchers, but significant challenges exist in clinical and translational science. This presentation will discuss some of these challenges, how they are being addressed in different academic settings across the country, and how institutions in Delaware are working together to develop infrastructure and programs […]

Empathy in Scientific Communication: Why it matters and how to develop this skill for better papers and grants

Publishing your science or getting a proposal funded requires others to be convinced that your ideas are important. However, all too often, papers and proposals are rejected because the reviewers either did not agree with your conclusions, or were not convinced of their value. This presentation explores such “communication failures” and links these to a […]

Research in Diet, Nutritional Status, and Energy Balance in Infancy

Increasing evidence indicates there are sensitive periods in life during which nutrition and growth may have a programming or long lasting effect on later life health outcomes; one such period is infancy. This presentation will focus on diet composition, nutritional status, and measures of energy balance in infancy, and their effect on growth, in both […]

Alternative/Article-Based Metrics (Altmetrics) for Clinical and Public Health Researchers

The impact of scientific research is usually measured by journal-based citation metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor and H-Index. Altmetrics (article-based or alternative metrics) offer a complementary way of measuring dissemination and a diversity of impact, of particular relevance to clinical and public health researchers. This presentation will review the strengths and limitations of […]