The overall goals of the Field Core (FC) are to provide the methods, staff, resources, and expertise necessary to ensure the efficient and successful completion of projects examining multifactorial geriatric health conditions.
The specific aims are: 1) to provide centralized participant recruitment, enrollment, assessment and surveillance services to Yale OAIC studies, including a system to carefully monitoring recruitment and retention of minority elders in OAIC projects;2) to provide assistance to junior faculty, with special attention to translational researchers, in the development of research protocols involving older adult human subjects and their implementation in the field;3) to train Field Core staff in uniform and reliable, interview and assessment methods;4) to collaborate with the Data Management and Informatics Core (DMIC) to ensure uniformity of methods and measurement when appropriate among OAIC studies and to protect the confidentiality of data;5) to collaborate with the Biostatistics Core by identifying real world challenges which impact study design and sample estimation;6) to create and advance, through development projects, innovative strategies to overcoming obstacles encountered in studies of multifactorial geriatric health conditions;7) to provide assistance to externally funded investigators who wish to increase the participation of older adult participants in their research studies;and 8) to monitor adherence to guidelines and regulations governing involvement of human subjects in OAIC projects. The FC provides essential research tools and strategies to address common challenges confronted in studies of multifactorial geriatric health conditions. The FC's mission is to offer and to improve upon methods of recruiting, retaining, assessing and intervening safely and effectively on target populations of older adults. Access to a pool of well-trained Clinical Nurse Researchers and Research Associates and well established professional and community relationships facilitate the efficient start-up of projects. Over the next cycle of the Yale OAIC, we will build upon established strengths of the FC, which has evolved over the years from a focus on large observational studies to smaller intervention and pilot projects, with special attention to translational research. This latter aim was facilitated when Yale received a Clinical and Translational Award (CTSA) from the NIH. Barbara Gulanski, MD MPH, who is Director for Clinical Services for the CTSA, is now OAIC Co-director of translational research and also co-leader of the Field Core. A key goal of the Field Core will be ensuring collaboration and sharing of expertise and resources between the Yale OAIC and CTSA to encourage and facilitate translational research addressing multifactorial geriatric health conditions.
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