Category: Research, Design, and Statistics

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 […]

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 […]

Dietary Sodium and Health: More Than Just Blood Pressure

Sodium is essential for cellular homeostasis and physiological function. Excess dietary sodium has been linked to elevations in blood pressure (BP). The mechanisms underlying sodium-induced increases in BP are not completely understood but may involve alterations in renal function, fluid volume, fluid-regulatory hormones, the vasculature, cardiac function, and the autonomic nervous system. Recent pre-clinical and […]

Health Literacy: The Impact on Health Care Institutions, Providers, and Consumers/Patients

This presentation will provide an overview of the growing recognition of health literacy as a key factor in consumer/patient empowerment for their own health, health information knowledge, and adherence to health care recommendations resulting in poorer health outcomes and major increases in healthcare costs. Evidence and recommendations for healthcare system changes, patient health provider/patient communication, […]

The People’s Report: Opportunity and Activism in the Streets of Wilmington, Delaware

Involvement in crime can be thought of as a type of coping and adaptation resulting from experiences with extreme economic poverty. In the Eastside and Southbridge neighborhoods of Wilmington, Delaware, street identified Black men and women were employed as community research-activists to involve local residents in exploring this relationship. Dr. Payne is an Associate Professor […]

Tools for Studying the Genetic Basis of a Complex Disease

Susceptibility to most common diseases is complex, and based on both genetic and environmental risk factors. This presentation will discuss basic concepts and current tools to identify and interpret genetic and epigenetic variation, and pitfalls in associating variants with disease risk. Dr. Barthold is a pediatric urologist/clinician scientist at Nemours. She completed an American Foundation […]

A New Paradigm for Outcomes Assessment

There are several large initiatives that have potential to create a paradigm shift in the way outcomes measurement is practiced. These include the PROMIS, Neuro-QOL and adaptations for rehabilitation populations, the TBI-QOL and SCI-QOL and all have been developed using innovative item banking procedures and Item Response Theory. All of these scales utilized extensive qualitative […]

A Quantitative Model for Glagov Remodeling in Atherosclerosis

Glagov phenomenon describes how atherosclerotic vessels change shape under an increasing disease burden (see Glagov et al, New England Journal of Medicine 1987). Specifically, lumen areas remain constant or increase slightly before contracting as intima areas increase. This presentation will introduce a mathematical model for Glagov remodeling and allow clinicians and researchers to understand the […]

The Complex Network of Human Disease: Applying Network Theory to Medicine

Recent research has advanced a network-based approach to human disease based on the hypothesis that a disease phenotype is rarely a consequence of an abnormality in a single effector gene product, but reflects various pathobiological processes that interact in a complex network. Networks have been studied in mathematics, computer science, engineering and social sciences for […]

Why must my child sound like Stephen Hawking: Personalized Synthetic Voices for Pediatric Assistive Communication

Existing speech synthesis technology allows us to record fluent speech from an individual and, using machine learning, develop a Text To Speech (TTS) “voice” that sounds like the individual. This technology is used for “Voice Banking” by patients diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS who are able to create personal TTS voices for use […]