2013 CTSI Annual Pilot Awards to Improve the Conduct of Research

To facilitate the development, conduct or analysis of clinical & translational research

Review Complete Proposals

Establishment of centalized freezer surveillance system to increase protection of human biospecimens

Proposal Status: 

Rationale: There are currently about 1000 mechanical – 80 degree Celsius freezers in use at UCSF. The majority of these freezers are used to store biomedical specimens for basic research, translational research, clinical trials, and prospective biobanking efforts.       

Information Interface for Patients, Clinicians and Researchers

Proposal Status: 

Rationale:Taking findings from basic research to practical applications that enhance human health and well-being is the signification of translational research. Improvement in human health and well-being, however, does not necessarily involve the cure of a disease. Sometimes mere information transfer might help patients substantially in dealing with their medical condition. This is particularly true for patients with family history of yet unknown or contradictory diagnoses – in other words for patients with rare hereditary diseases.

Governance of Extant UC Biorepositories

Proposal Status: 

Rationale:  Each UC Biomedical campus contains tens to hundreds of biorepositories. These operations collect human biological samples (tissues and fluids) and associated data for use in research. UC biobanks traditionally have established their own governance structure, which includes rules for accessing, storing and sharing samples/data, including informed consent practices.  Governance, a complicated process, has myriad ethical implications including risk to individuals, identifiability, and data sharing.

Assessment of Participant Health Literacy by Clinical Research Coordinators

Proposal Status: 

Rationale. Successful recruitment and retention of ethnically diverse research participants in clinical studies depends heavily on the comprehension, needs, and preferences of potential participants.  A critical influence on these outcomes is health literacy, the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.[i]  Since 30% of US adults have only basic health literacy,

Search Engine to Directly Access EHRs without Data Warehouses or Loss of Unstructured Data

Proposal Status: 

Search Engine to Directly Access EHRs without Data Warehouses or Loss of Unstructured Data

 

MicroPub, A Publication Platform for Short Replication Studies

Proposal Status: 

1.    Rationale Modern basic science rewards large papers in highly cited journals.  However, it is difficult for translational and clinical researchers to assess the quality of a basic science paper.  A proxy is the number of citations, but that is a very inaccurate measure; some papers that cannot be replicated have hundreds of citations.  Given the lack of safeguards ensuring publication quality, the intense competition to produce high profile publications incentivizes publication bias (i.e.

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