The Data Management Core (DMC) will be located at the University of Waterloo and will be directed by Mary Thompson, PhD. The DMC will provide central oversight to all three projects represented in the P01 and to maintain uniformly high standards of design, data collection and analysis. The DMC will be responsible for: (1) Coordinating aspects of the different projects to ensure efficiency and comparability of research designs, consistency of construct measurements, and analysis methods;(2) Management of data collection and data transfer from field operations to the DMC;(3) Maintaining a secure repository of data and an efficient secure system that allows investigators to access data;(4) Surveillance of tobacco control policies in countries participating in the ITC Project, including both national-level and sub-national policies (e.g., state and provincial clean air laws, taxes, etc.);(5) Providing technical assistance and advice on analytic approaches;(6) Development and testing of new methods for data collection and data analysis;(7) Ensuring proper translation of research protocols by pretesting protocols used in different countries and cultures. The DMC will have a management team, that will meet weekly by phone to setting priorities, reviewing requests for data access, and other issues related to the management of the DMC. The management team will be directed by Dr. Thompson and include the following persons: Drs. Fong, Boudreau, Quah, and Wu from the University of Waterloo;Dr. Hyland from Roswell Park, and Dr. Thrasher from the University of South Carolina. The translation of research protocols will be led by Dr. James Thrasher, Dr. Anne Quah and Dr. Changbao Wu, who will be responsible for working with country-specific investigators to ensure appropriate implementation of the core ITC surveys into each language and culture. The Management Team will interact regularly by e-mail and conference calls when the need arises. Through the P01 Internal Advisory Committee, Dr. Thompson alternating with Dr. Boudreau will communicate weekly with Project Pis.
The diversity of research designs and the number of data collection sites involved in this P01 application require a particularly strong DMC to ensure the integrity of these projects and the quality of the data. The DMC consists of experts in survey sampling, biostatistics and research methods who have extensive backgrounds in health behavior and tobacco use as primary investigators in research on tobacco use.
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