Clinical Protocol support contract designed to attain extramural support for developing, designing, interpreting, and evaluating clinical trials, epidemiologic and natural history studies. In addition, it will provide for outcomes research involving eye diseases and visual disorders and some preclinical studies. The focus shall be on the design of studies and the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data emanating from these studies, as well as support, and monitoring patient safety and follow-up. Contractor shall also provide analytical and data management support, as described in the work statement, for specified clinical research data bases, cost-effectiveness and economic analyses, quality of life assessment and outcomes research. This will include, but not be limited to, the following areas: analysis of Medicare and other health care databases;evaluation of existing NEI databases such as, centralized NEI Intramural Research database, the Eye Disease Case Control Study, Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study, Framingham Eye Study, and intramural AIDS and uveitis databases. Objective of Clinical Protocol: This study will identify the genes responsible for uveal coloboma, an abnormal development of the eye caused by incomplete closure of a normally-occurring gap in the eye (the optic fissure) after the fifth week of life in a human embryo. There have been studies of families in which more than one person has been affected by this disorder. Coloboma occurs in about 1 of 10,000 live births and may cause significant vision loss. Researchers seek a better understanding of the genes responsible for this disorder.
