Grants & You Spring 2021: News & Updates

AHRQ released a beta version of its Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Database in December 2020. The multi-year (2009 – 2018) beta data files draw from existing federal and other publicly available data sources.

Data variables correspond to 5 key SDOH domains:

• Social context (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, veteran status)
• Economic context (e.g., income, unemployment rate)
• Education
• Physical infrastructure (e.g., housing, crime, transportation)
• Healthcare context (e.g., health insurance)

The files can be linked to other data by geography (county and zip code). Explore the data here.

Created and maintained by NY Langone Health, the COVID-19 Neuro Databank/ Biobank (NeuroCOVID) will collect information from clinicians about COVID-19-related neurological symptoms, comorbidities, disease course, complications, sequelae, and outcomes as well as effects on pre-existing neurological conditions.

Healthcare providers and participating clinical sites across the US are invited to use the web-based data portal to submit de-identified information, along with relevant biospecimens, into the database.

Scientists are invited to explore NeuroCOVID data for research studies on preventing, managing, and treating neurological complications associated with COVID-19.

Starting September 15, 2021, users will be required to use 2-factor authentication through login.gov to access eRA Commons, ASSIST, Internet Assisted Review, and Commons Mobile. eRA first phased in the requirement for review meetings in IAR in February 2021, with the other eRA systems to follow before the mandatory deadline. Once transitioned to login.gov, a user's old eRA credentials (user name and password) become obsolete. All users are encouraged to switch to login.gov before the deadline.

To reduce or eliminate mental health disparities in rural communities, NIMH is seeking information from researchers and providers as well as affected patients, families, community members, and other concerned stakeholders on the following topics:

• Research needs for improving access to and use of effective treatment and prevention services in rural communities.
• Research needs for addressing mental health within the context of other health problems as well as social determinants of health within the rural context.
• Measurement, methodology, approach, and analytic strategies that would boost progress in rurally oriented research.

Submit your comments and suggestions via email or on the submission website by April 15, 2021.

NCCIH's draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021 – 2025 is now available online for review.

The draft plan lays out 5 core NCCIH objectives for the next 5 years:

1. Advance fundamental science and methods development.
2. Advance research on whole person health and integration of complementary and conventional care.
3. Foster research on health promotion and restoration, resilience, disease prevention, and symptom management.
4. Enhance the complementary and integrative health research workforce.
5. Disseminate objective evidence-based information on complementary and integrative health interventions.

NIH seeks your thoughts on how you use CDEs, potential challenges to their adoption, and how NIH might facilitate and incentivize their use to help plan future CDE-related efforts. NIH welcomes feedback on CDEs regardless of the research topic or disease area but are especially interested in their use in COVID-19 research. Comments are being accepted here until May 10, 2021.

The Project in Osteopathic Medical Education and Empathy (POMEE) found Hispanic/Latinx/Spanish and African American osteopathic medical students score higher in empathy. Because empathy is positively correlated with clinical competence and patient health, a more diverse healthcare workforce could lead to improved health outcomes for all patient populations, including minority and underserved communities.

POMEE’s principal investigator Mohammadreza Hojat, PhD, research professor in Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, says, "Our assessment can not only help medical schools select the medical students most likely to become successful and caring clinicians but can also help close some of the troubling racial gaps that persist among medical education institutions."

Read more about POMEE here or watch this webinar hosted by the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.

PCC is starting a Journal Club this spring as part of a new project, Bridging the Gap in Primary Care Research. The club is open to all PCC executive members and supporters interested in making recommendations for research priorities and assessing the actionability of evidence.

Meeting quarterly, the club will evaluate articles identified by PCC’s new Research Dissemination Workgroup for academic rigor and potential impacts. It will also advise the workgroup to convey the most salient research findings to a broad stakeholder base.

Sign up to participate here. For more information, contact PCC Senior Program Associate, Alyssa Neumann.

Laura Lipke, MS, MLIS, Medical Librarian Liaison to KCOM, is now offering Virtual Research Appointments. KCOM faculty and staff may schedule a time to meet with Ms. Lipke for any research-related questions. Faculty and staff at other schools may contact their liaison librarian directly with inquiries.

Sponsored Programs routinely covers webinars on a wide range of topics tied to ATSU's strategic priorities and is happy to share key takeaways. Summaries of these webinars are available from Sponsored Programs staff upon request (pds@atsu.edu).

Save the dates! Later this year, NCCIH will host 2 lectures with the theme, "Novel Approaches at the Intersection of Mental Health and Pain."