RAPID CASE ASCERTAINMENT SHARED RESOURCE (RCA) PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Rapid Case Ascertainment program (RCA) was originally developed in 1986-1987 in response to a Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) request to establish a single entity that would be responsible for all population-based cancer epidemiology studies that directly involve Connecticut hospitals. RCA assists cancer researchers in implementing and executing their studies by providing high-quality and cost-effective study management, cancer case identification, patient enrollment and interview, medical record abstraction, and pathology specimen collection services so that investigators can accomplish their scientific goals. During our most recent funding period (FY17), 19 people have used RCA. Thirteen of these users (68%) were YCC members. The majority of this use came from Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) Research Program. The Rapid Case Ascertainment Shared Resource (RCA) facilitates cancer research and population-based studies of cancer for YCC investigators, as well as outside investigators, who wish to conduct research in the state of Connecticut (YCC catchment area). RCA addresses the many administrative tasks common to all proposed hospital-based research in the state and provides a uniformly high-quality, well-coordinated interface with those individuals, institutions, and agencies crucial to the success of cancer research. RCA also supports rapid cancer case identification for research and clinical purposes. RCA functions as an agent of the Connecticut Tumor Registry, as designated by the Commissioner of Public Health. RCA is led by Rajni Mehta who has a master?s degree in Public Health.
The Specific Aims of the RCA Shared Resource are to: (1) Provide consultation and assistance to investigators in protocol writing in appropriate areas (protection of human subjects, HIPAA regulations, confidentiality, etc.); (2) Obtain approvals to conduct the research and submit annual reports and requests for re-approvals to all non-Yale IRBs; (3) Identify patients with incident cancers; (4) Serve as an honest broker in studies that require the investigators to not know the identity or the individuals whose data or specimens are being used for research (de-identified research); (5) Perform data collection and pathology specimen collection; (6) Facilitate research across the state of CT (YCC catchment area), as well as targeting areas of higher cancer risk (e.g., cities of Hartford, New Haven. and Bridgeport).
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