Research News - February 3, 2017

Our hospital was founded with the philosophy that when in distress, every man becomes our neighbor. For more than 200 years, we have stood by that statement and have provided compassionate care and support to all who need it. Today, we are proud to say our commitment has not – and will not – waiver.

Members of the MGH Diversity and Inclusion Committee and other leaders from across the institution met this morning to discuss the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday and how it may impact all the members of our MGH family. The work of this committee will reinforce our commitment to support all in our hospital community who are affected by these restrictions.
We understand there are many questions and concerns and we have created a page on massgeneral.org to keep you informed. This site will continue to be updated as more information is available. Staff also are encouraged to take advantage of the following hospital resources which are available to provide assistance:
Individuals who may be affected by these immigration restrictions can contact the Partners Office for International Professionals and Students. For guidance regarding specific circumstances, email pips@partners.org.

The Employee Assistance Program can offer a variety of services for employees, including counseling, referrals and stress management. Call 866-724-4EAP or email Andrea Stidsen.

Those seeking spiritual guidance may contact MGH Chaplaincy. Call 617-726-2220 or email Imam Elsir Sanousi, MGH chaplain.

Human Resources can assist employees as needed. Email Steve Taranto, director.

Staff who have personal safety concerns or need conflict consultation can contact MGH Police and Security at 617-726-2121 or email Bonnie Michelman, director.

As a reminder, staff who plan to travel outside the U.S. for hospital business should enroll in Partners TravelSafe, a travel information and emergency assistance program for employees. TravelSafe offers travel information, active alerts, emergency assistance and a single point of contact should you encounter trouble while traveling domestically or internationally. TravelSafe’s global hotline is +1 443-965-9242. Questions can be directed to travelsafe@partners.org.

Please know that we are continuing to monitor this situation closely and will communicate as new information is available. In the meantime, we encourage all members of our community to watch this video and remember the words of our Diversity and Inclusion Statement:

Diversity is the richness of human differences. Inclusion is when everyone feels connected, valued and engaged. At Massachusetts General Hospital, we believe that because of diversity we excel; through inclusion we respect; focused on equity we serve, heal, educate and innovate.

On Monday, 2/6/17 from 4:30pm – 8:30pm CCM will be performing routine maintenance to the Animal Ordering Web Site (http://ccm.partners.org).

Please do not attempt to access the application during this maintenance window.  We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. If you have any questions or problems, please email us at MGHCCM@PARTNERS.ORG

The Plaza Café will close permanently on February 3, 2017 so that we may begin construction of the new Marketplace.

We will have additional vending machines for your use during the construction period. They are located around the corner adjacent to the existing vending machines. Anticipated opening date of the Marketplace is early summer.

Questions: Call Jeanne Kotelly at 724-9807.

Please click here to read the Winter release of the Partners Innovation newsletter.

Monday, February 6, 2017, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Simches Auditorium (3.110)
Broadcast to Isselbacher Auditorium (CNY-149, 7th Floor)

AGENDA
Increasing Your Visibility with Industry and Beyond
Gabriela Apiou, PhD, Director, Translational Research Training & Development, MGH Research Institute

Clinical Trials.gov: Final Rule and NIH Policy - Striving for Transparency
Sarah A. White, MPH, Director, Human Research Quality Improvement Program
Emily Ouellette, JD, Assistant Director, FDA and Regulatory Support, QI Program

Elected Representatives will be available 30 minutes before and after this meeting in Simches 3.130 if you’d like to speak with them.

(Lunch available at 11:45 AM)
All MGH Researchers welcome!

Tuesday, February 7, 4:00 - 5:00 pm, CNY 149, Rm 2.204

Therapeutic targeting of cardiac (and kidney) fibrosis
Burns Blaxall, PhD, FAHA, FACC, FAPS
Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
Director of Translational Science, Heart Institute

Thursday, February 9, 2017, 12:00 PM, CNY 149, Isselbacher Auditorium, 7th Floor
Will be broadcasted to MGH Bulfinch 165

"Rheumatoid Arthritis, Antibodies and Green Listed CRISPR screens"
Fredrik Wermeling, PhD. Karolinska Institute

Contact Person – Fiona Chen (617/726-1527)
http://www.massgeneral.org/ciid/ourseminars/seminarseries.aspx

Friday, February 10, 2017, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, O'Keefe Auditorium, Blake Building, 1st Floor

Join us for our quarterly speaker series on innovation in healthcare!  Lunch will be provided starting at 11:30 AM. Register here.

Retsef Levi is a Professor of Operations Management at the Sloan School of Management, MIT.  Dr. Levi’s primary current research domains are supply chain and inventory management, healthcare management, revenue management, risk management and logistics. For the last 6 years Levi has lead several collaborative research efforts and initiatives with some of the major academic medical centers in the Boston area, addressing core system design challenges within these centers.

Tuesday, March 14, 8:00 am - 4:00 pm, Simches, 3rd Floor

Please join us for the 7th Annual Research Administrators Retreat. 

All MGH Department Administrators (Grant Administrators, Grant Coordinators, Grant Managers, Research Coordinators, Staff Assistants, Support Staff, etc.) and Partners Central Administrators are invited to attend, as well as any interested investigators.  The retreat will be equally beneficial to those who are new to research administration and those who have been in the field for years.  The retreat will also be a great opportunity to network with your colleagues.

An agenda will be released on the Research Intranet page shortly.  Please keep checking back.

Mondays, March 27, April 3, 10 & 25, 2:30 – 4:30pm, Simches Research Building, Garrod/Mendel Conference Room

This course is sponsored by the MGH Division of Clinical Research and the Mongan Institute Health Policy Center.

Course Director: Karen Donelan, ScD, EdM

Course Description 
This course is designed to prepare health professionals with an introduction to theory and practice in the design and conduct of surveys. Course topics will include all phases of the survey process: matching research design to data needs, understanding the role of qualitative research in survey development, probability and non-probability sampling methods, developing questions and questionnaires, choosing modes and methods of data collection, issues in analyzing and reporting survey data, and the effective presentation and reporting of survey findings to relevant audiences.

Session 1: March 27
2:30 – 3:30pm - Lecture: Overview of Survey Design and Methods
3:30 – 4:30pm - Mini Conferences (sign-up required)

Session 2: April 3
2:30 – 3:30pm: Lecture:Questions and Questionnaires
3:30 – 4:30pm: Mini Conferences (sign-up required)

Session 3: April 10
2:30 – 3:30pm: Lecture:Data Collection Methods
3:30 – 4:30pm: Judging the quality of survey studies: Journal Club

Session 4:  April 25
2:30 – 4:30pm: Lecture IRB: Rules and Regulations Regarding the Conduct of Survey Research

** Incomplete applications will not be considered **

Register here. Please contact Tiereny Morrison-Rohlfs with any questions.

Thursdays, March 2, 9, 16, 23, 1:30 - 3:00 pm, Simches 3.110

Sponsored by the MGH Division of Clinical Research and the MGH Biostatistics Center

Brian Healy, PhD, MGH Biostatistics Center

This four-session seminar series will be offered on Thursdays in March. In this series, participants will review the statistical approach to problems commonly encountered in research. Each of the four sessions will focus on a different theme using concrete and realistic examples. In particular, you will learn how to perform specific types of analyses in the class using the statistical package called R, which is a free software package. This course is intended for investigators who are interested in clinical research.

Speaker: Brian Healy, PhD, MGH Biostatistics Center

Course Outline:
Session 1 – Introduction to statistics and computing
Session 2 – Linear regression
Session 3 – Survival Analysis
Session 4 – Repeated Measures

You can download R from this website http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/R/CRAN/. R is a very powerful statistical package. The dataset that we will analyze each week will be posted course site. The datasets will be saved in comma delimited format, which can be imported into all statistical packages

Registration is required. Please contact Tiereny Morrison-Rohlfs at tmorrison-rohlfs@partners.org with any questions.

The Center for Faculty Development's Office for Research Career Development presents a seminar for HMS faculty and trainees.

This Responsible Conduct of Research seminar will present an overview of the scientific peer review process, including:

1. Journal guidelines and unwritten rules
2. Ethical considerations for reviewers
3. Case studies of peer review challenges and solutions

Discussion Leaders:
Dennis Brown, PhD, Professor of Medicine, HMS, Director, Office for Research Career Development
Hensin Tsao, MD, PhD, Professor of Dermatology, HMS, Clinical Director, MGH Melanoma & Pigmented Lesion Center

Please click here to register by Tue, Feb 7.

This seminar counts as one of the four required lectures in part III of Partners RCR training.
All are welcome, but space is limited and registration preference will be given to those with RCR training requirements. For more information on RCR training, click here.
**For a list of upcoming RCR sessions at MGH and other local sites, please click here.**

The Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) is accepting applications for the April 3rd deadline for the Deliberative Interim Support Funding.  April is the second of three standing deadlines for these awards in Fiscal Year 2017.  The next deadline will be August 1, 2017.   

What are they?
This is open to Principal Investigators during a lapse or delay in their research funding from the NIH or another Federal agency (e.g., the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense).  Investigators must have applied for independent, long-term support (R01, R21, U01 and P01).  The Deliberative Interim Support process is open to:

1. Investigators whose grants were not scored or whose scores were not translated into a percentile ranking.
2. Investigators whose grants received scores >20th percentile.
3. Investigators who have already received Formulaic Bridge Funding or Deliberative Interim Support on their A0 grant application and are now requesting support for their A1 or A0 resubmission.  Investigators in this category must apply through the Deliberative Interim Support process for their A1 and A0 resubmission regardless of the score they received on their resubmitted grant.

When is the deadline?
Monday, April 3, 2017 - 5:00 PM

How do I learn more and apply?
Deliberative Interim Support Funding - Click here

Four Year Award for Investigators who are Underrepresented in Academic Medicine*
*Basic, Clinical, Translational, and Health Services investigators are all eligible

Applications for grants are invited by the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), and the Executive Committee on Research (ECOR). 

What is the Award?
The MGH Physician/Scientist Development Award (PSDA) is designed for MD and/or PhD investigators at MGH who are considered underrepresented in academic medicine (URM). This Award is intended to provide transitional funding for support in the development of physicians and scientists underrepresented in academic medicine, and thereby increase opportunities for URM researchers to advance to senior positions in academic medicine at MGH.  The CDI will evaluate the need for this Award on a regular basis.

Am I URM (Underrepresented in Medicine)?
For the purposes of the PSDA, MGH follows the definition of underrepresented in medicine and biomedical research (URM) of the NIH and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  URM groups may include Latino/ Hispanic (including Brazilian), African-American/Black, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Natives, among others. Please note that Asians are not considered URM, UNLESS they are underrepresented relative to the population MGH serves, e.g., Cambodian or Laotian.

How much is the award?
A maximum of $120,000.00 will be awarded to be spent over a three or four-year period, with a maximum of $40,000.00 per year of funding in direct costs, plus 15% for indirect costs.

When is the deadline?
Thursday, March 2, 2017 – 5:00 PM

How do I learn more and apply?
Click here to read more and apply online              

We ask that all MGH Investigators interested in applying for any limited submission award submit a Letter of Intent (see detailed instructions below) to the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) by the deadline indicated for each award to be considered to receive an institutional nomination.

Process
Submit a one- to two-page Letter of Intent (LOI) to the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) via email to ecor@partners.org.  In addition to your LOI, please include an NIH Biosketch.

The letter of intent should include:

• Name of the Principal Investigator with appropriate contact information
• A descriptive title of the potential application
• Brief description of the project
• Brief description of why you specifically should be selected to receive institutional nomination for this award

If there is more than one MGH investigator interested in applying for each limited submission award, the LOIs will be used to assess candidates and a review and selection process will take place.

Current Limited Submission Funding Opportunities
Please click here for more information and for our internal deadlines.

• Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Centers (U19)
• FY17 Partnerships to Achieve Health Equity
• CTSA Program Data to Health (CD2H) Coordinating Center (U24) – NEW!

If there is a limited submission funding opportunity you do not see listed above or you have any additional questions, please contact Erin McGivney at 617-643-6471.

For the latest National Institutes of Health notices, requests for applications, and program announcements, follow this link: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/WeeklyIndex.cfm

MGH ECOR Formulaic Bridge Funding Support
Application Deadline: February 7, 2017; 7th day of each month

KL2 Catalyst Medical Research Investigator Training (CMeRIT) Award
Application Deadline: March 30

Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC) Accepting PILOT & DRIVE Grant Pre-Proposals

What Does the IRB Really Want? How to Write a Human Studies Protocol – February 9

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