This application addresses the broad Challenge Area (10) Information Technology for Processing Health Care Data. Specifically, this application addresses the goals identified in the Challenge Topic (TW- 101):* Innovative information and communication technologies to enhance capabilities of U.S. institutions in global health research and research training. The purpose of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate culturally adaptive long-distance communication and distance learning applications that can enhance productivity and quality of active U.S.-international research and research training collaborations. This project will fill a gap in availability of training programs to prepare international study coordinators to initiate, manage, and coordinate complex clinical studies, ensuring maintenance of high scientific and ethical standards and adherence to regulatory requirements. Most research coordinators learn their roles 'on the job,'and the lack of adequate training threatens the quality of clinical research. 1, 8, 19, 21 Four courses will be developed and offered over a 30-week period each year for 2 years to a total of 150 study coordinators from international sites. A fifth optional course (Issues in Clinical Research) will also be developed and offered for in-depth study or development of special projects with mentoring from course faculty. We will target recruitment to coordinators working with the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and at other international sites. The first course will focus on teaching principles and strategies, to prepare coordinators to teach others at their clinical sites, which will expand the impact of the program. The other courses will be: (a) Overview of Historical, Ethical, and Cultural Issues in Clinical Research;(b) Overview of Research Methods and Regulatory Processes in Clinical Research;(c) Overview of Clinical Site Operations and Management;and (d) Issues in Clinical Research. The course content will be recorded onto CD ROMS and notebooks for each participant. Courses will be offered over the WebCT/VISTA distance learning platform;participants will be post weekly discussion board assignments and participate in synchronous internet-based chats and classes. The project will also include several innovative distance education strategies: podcasts, cell phone text messaging to reinforce course content, and development of ePortfolios. The program process and outcomes will be evaluated to document assessment of change in participants'knowledge, supervisors'ratings of changes in participants'performance, student evaluations of courses and teachers, and ability of participants to train other coordinators at their study sites to ensure program sustainability. The project will build on lessons learned by project faculty over the past 3 years offering similar distance-education courses to a total of 75 study coordinators in 14 different countries. These courses were evaluated positively and had many positive outcomes including publication of peer-reviewed papers based on course assignments by eight of the course participants. 3, 5-7, 11, 13, 14, 17 1 The purpose of this project is to develop, implement and evaluate four courses that will be offered over a 30- week period each year for 2 years to a total of 150 study coordinators from international sites, targeting the HIV Prevention Trials Network and other NIH sites. A fifth optional course will also be offered for study coordinators who want to pursue more in-depth study or projects under guidance of project faculty. 1
The purpose of this project is to develop, implement and evaluate four courses that will be offered over a 30- week period each year for 2 years to a total of 150 study coordinators from international sites, targeting the HIV Prevention Trials Network and other NIH sites. A fifth optional course will also be offered for study coordinators who want to pursue more in-depth study or projects under guidance of project faculty. 1
| Wilson, Lynda Law; Rice, Marti; Jones, Carolynn T et al. (2013) Enhancing research capacity for global health: evaluation of a distance-based program for international study coordinators. J Contin Educ Health Prof 33:67-75 |
