News and Announcements

Whitney Irie, PhD, assistant professor at Boston College School of Social Work is presenting at C-DIAS PSMG Virtual Grand Rounds.

The title of the talk is "At the Pace of Trust: The Role of Trustworthiness in Implementation Science". 

This manuscript-in-progress presentation will prompt critical discourse around trustworthiness as a fundamental determinant, critical strategy, and indispensable outcome in implementation science. 

When: Tuesday, April 30, 12-1:30 (CST). 

Please contact Abbey Dahl (abbey.dahl@northwestern.edu) for information regarding the zoom information of this event.

Wearable technologies, created to continuously collect personal health data, automatically gather high-frequency information outside clinical settings. Their popularity in research has generated large-scale time-series datasets. In this lecture Margaret Banker, PhD, assistant professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Biostatistics, will explore the various methods, ranging from conventional to more novel approaches, for analyzing these datasets. As part of the Statistically Speaking lecture series presented by the NUCATS Institute's Biostatistics Collaboration Center, this talk is intended to be educational, introductory, and appeal to a broad audience.

When: Tuesday, February 13, noon

Please contact Abbey Dahl (abbey.dahl@northwestern.edu) for information regarding the location of this event

Join Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center for a two-part interactive workshop. Participants will gain knowledge and actively participate in the multi-step process of crafting a thorough search strategy for systematic and scoping reviews. The workshop will demonstrate effective methods for searching diverse information sources and preparing the necessary documentation for the final manuscript. Faculty, staff, students, and researchers are invited to attend.

Prerequisite Classes and Trainings:

• PubMed
• Conducting a Systematic Review: Part 1 — Planning the Process or Conducting a Scoping Review
• Conducting a Systematic Review: Part 2 — Tools & Resources (also applicable to scoping reviews)
• Topic Searching in PubMed: Using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Register for the Two-Part Interactive Workshop:

• Conducting Systematic and Scoping Reviews: Search Development and Documentation — Part 1, Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 12-1 p.m. via Zoom. Registration required
• Conducting Systematic and Scoping Reviews: Search Development and Documentation — Part 2, Wednesday, April 12, 2024, 12-1 p.m. via Zoom. Registration required

Kristi Holmes, PhD, professor of Preventive Medicine, director of Northwestern’s Galter Health Sciences Library and chief of knowledge management for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (I.AIM), has been named the new associate dean for knowledge management and strategy at Feinberg.

In her new role, Holmes will direct the development of new infrastructure and guidelines to support the sharing of knowledge within Feinberg to accelerate research and discovery.

Read More Here

Effective May 8, 2023, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) will withdraw from the NIH Parent R21 Exploratory/Developmental Grant funding opportunities, including:

• PA-20-195: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-194: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)

Instead, NIAMS has issued the following Notice of Special Interest (NOSI), to support innovative projects that introduce novel scientific ideas, model systems, tools, agents, targets, and technologies that have the potential for significant impact, and to substantially advance research within the NIAMS core mission. 

• NOT-AR-23-006: NOSI: Supporting Exploratory/Developmental Research Focused on NIAMS Core Mission Areas

NIAMS will not accept any applications (new or resubmission) in response to the parent R21 funding opportunities after May 7, 2023, without referencing an appropriate NIAMS NOSI. Applications for non-clinical trial, or mechanistic clinical trial Exploratory/Developmental Research within the NIAMS core mission areas should reference the R21 NOSI NOT-AR-23-006.

Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to consult NIAMS program staff for their specific research area of interest to assess the relevance of their application topic.

View the full list at NIAMS Funding Opportunities.  

The NUCATS Translational Science Pilot Awards program is seeking proposals for highly innovative, multi-disciplinary pilot projects that will advance Translational Science and are aligned with one of two priority areas: Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) or Dissemination and Implementation (D&I). This funding mechanism combines, replaces, and builds on the two prior NUCATS pilot funding mechanisms: Clinical and Translational Pilot Awards and Dissemination and Implementation Pilot Awards. Proposals may request funding for CTR, D&I, or hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies that encompass both CTR and D&I.

• Maximum award amount: $30,000
• Pre-application Letter of Intent deadline: May 12, 2023, by 5 p.m. CST
• View the RFA

If you would like additional information on this or other NUCATS funding mechanisms, please email NUCATS-funding@northwestern.edu.

The NUCATS Voucher Award program is designed to assist investigators in developing resources and/or preliminary data to facilitate hypothesis-driven research initiatives. The fund is intended for projects involving critical steps in the device and drug development pathway and projects that address a critical need in translational science that are too small to be suitable for conventional internal or external funding mechanisms. Proposals that address a specific translational barrier and have a high probability of external federal funding if the barrier is addressed are most likely to receive funding.

• Voucher Award Amount: Up to $2,500
• Submission Deadline: Voucher applications are accepted on a rolling basis

Details about the Voucher Award program — including funding priorities, eligibility criteria, program expectations, and allowable expenses — are available on the NUCATS website. Funding decisions are typically communicated to applicants within five business days.

The Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC)/Northwestern University Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), in partnership with Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) announces the recipients of our 1st cycle of 2023 seed grants that support the development and capacity of community-driven partnerships to improve health equity.  

Requests for Applications for all 3 types of ARCC Seed Grants are now open!

Community Research Capacity-Building Grants ($2500, 6 months) and Partnership Development Seed Grants ($5,000, 12 months) Cycle 2

Research Pilot Seed Grants (Up to $27,500, 24 months)

• Eric Ruderman was selected to serve as a member of the working group for the new joint ACR/RRF precision medicine initiative.
• Nan Rothrock’s publication was selected as a 2020 Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes Outstanding Article of the Year Finalist.
  
  • Rothrock, NE, Amtmann, D, & Cook, KF. (2020) Development and validation of an interpretive guide for PROMIS scores. Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes, 4, 16.
• Arthur Mandelin served as the Twitter Ambassador for the Ultrasound Community Hub at the 2021 ACR Convergence meeting.
• Linda Van Horn was selected to serve on the Advisory Committee for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Bonnie Spring was honored with the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Distinguished Scientist Award.
• Hassan Ghomrawi was selected as a panel member for the 2023 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) Guideline: Indications for Total Hip and Knee Replacement.

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) recognizes a unique and compelling need to promote diversity in the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical, research workforce among research investigators. NIAMS participates in the NIH programs designed to attract and encourage eligible individuals from underrepresented populations to research careers by providing a continuum of research training opportunities, from high school to faculty levels.

The overall goal is to increase diversity in the research workforce by providing training opportunities to individuals whose research interests and skills are grounded in the advanced methods and experimental approaches needed to solve research problems.

The research emphasis in NIAMS is described in the mission statement. The applicant for any opportunity listed on this page may email the NIAMS Program Director in the program area of their area of research interest. The contact for general Diversity Supplement Program information is Marisol Espinoza-Pintucci.

To access information regarding this opportunity, visit the NIAMS page HERE.

NIAMS appoints Lindsey Criswell as the new director, as it honors former director Stephen Katz. To read the full announcement, CLICK HERE.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed the scientific and research communities under extraordinary pressure, to which they have responded with exceptional vigor and speed. The recent publication of a study evaluating hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in COVID-19 is a useful test case, highlighting the challenges of conducting research during a pandemic. While a scientific rationale existed for investigating HCQ in COVID-19, significant barriers limited the methodological quality of conducting the necessary research. The possible overinterpretation of the study’s findings and the desire to disseminate results quickly via social media has resulted in a premature rush to acquire this medication. One significant consequence of the rush is a severe shortage of HCQ for patients in whom efficacy has been established, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

There currently are no data to recommend the use of HCQ as prophylaxis for COVID-19, although we eagerly await data from trials under way. Thus, we discourage its off-label use until it is justified and the supply is bolstered. The HCQ shortage not only will limit availability to patients with COVID-19 if efficacy is truly established, but also represents a real risk to patients with rheumatic diseases who depend on HCQ for their survival.

Michael Putman, member of the FSM Division of Rheumatology and a FIRST-DailyLife user, is a co-author on this article.