The Evaluation Core will provide consultation, technical assistance, support services, and dissemination of new information to ED-PaTH investigators and community collaborators in the areas of biostatistical consultation, program evaluation, and cost-effectiveness. In coordination with the UCLA Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), this core will provide leadership across a network of institutions in Los Angeles including UCLA, Drew University of Medicine and Science, the RAND Corporation, and LA County HIV Program. Services will be provided at Drew University and the UCLA campus in order to provide: (1) high-level leadership and consulting on issues of study design, statistical analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and program evaluation in community settings for newly emerging and ongoing projects; (2) consultation on strategies for cross-study comparisons and to communicate these strategies to researchers facing similar challenges; (3) technical assistance supporting individual project data analysis and training of young investigators; (4) technical oversight and management and training for implementing quality assurance of individual project data management; and (5) communication and diffusion of biostatistical and evaluation skills to the members of the ED-PATH Center. Specifically, the Evaluation Core will have monthly meetings to serve as a clearinghouse for the development of new research projects as part of the Interdisciplinary Review Group. Biostatistical consultation for ongoing projects will be triaged by Dr. Jeremy Taylor, the Core Director, to one of the senior statisticians at Drew or UCLA. The biostatistical team currently has extraordinary expertise in the handling of missing data, modeling of analysis of longitudinal data sets, and design of research projects with multiple goals--each of which is necessary to high quality and innovative strategies for analysis of HIV projects. Consultation of program evaluation and cost-effectiveness are new services that HIV researchers have previously not been able to access, particularly to community collaborators. The infrastructure to provide technical assistance in establishing efficient and high quality data processing on each project will be provided by the UCLA Department of Psychiatry. The Core will also provide both supportive and primary training for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees and faculty new to the HIV research area. The Core will participate in the leadership and decision- making of the ED-PaTH Center, as well as the strategic planning process and the Annual Policy Forum.
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