This project is intended to provide an organization to serve as the Coordinating Center (CC) for the USRDS, and organizations or institutions, solicited under a separate Request for Proposals, to serve as Special Studies Centers (SSCs) for the USRDS, to carry out special studies of significant biomedical and economic importance to the institute and the Nephrology community. The CC, in collaboration with the NIH and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), shall provide the biostatistical, epidemiological, data management and analytical expertise necessary to maintain and update the existing USRDS database. Equally important functions of the CC will be coordination, scientific management, development and expansion of the database; preparation and release of subset(s) of the database to support investigator-initiated research; publication of papers and reports of scientific findings based on USRDS data; and provision of data to support research performed by the Special Studies Centers (SSCs). The Biomedical and Economic SSCs for the USRDS will assume the major analytical function of the USRDS data. Each SSC will 1) perform existing data studies in three major areas; and 2) design, pilot, and conduct two special studies during the contract period. The SSCs will function in collaboration with the NIH/NIDDK Division of Kidney, Urologic and Hematologic Disease (DKUHD), the USRDS CC, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA)'s Office of Clinical Standards and Quality (OCSQ) AND Office of Strategic Planning (OSP), and the HCFA ESRD Networks or equivalent system, as well as with the United States nephrology and renal transplant communities and the major specialty organizations, in the design and implementation of these studies.
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