Position: Research Personnel

Topic: Career Development

Description:

The Center for Clinical and Translational Science has organized a comprehensive educational certificate program for UIC research staff involved in human subjects research [clinical and translational, community-based and/or social/behavioral research].

Primary Audience: New and/or experienced Research Coordinators, Research Specialists, or Staff who work on research projects that involve human subjects, targeting those with project, personnel and/or grants management responsibilities.

Program Goals:

• Offer opportunities for training and professional development for research coordinators and other staff that will add value as they advance their careers at UIC.
• Increase knowledge and self-efficacy of research staff in performing their job responsibilities.
• Provide a seal of approval that Principal Investigators recognize as representing minimal competence when hiring and promoting research staff.
• Communicate standards and best practices for the responsible conduct of research specific to the roles and responsibilities of research coordinators at UIC.

Elements of the RC+ Certificate Program:

• Proof of CITI Trainings
• Complete online course modules
• Attend Best Practice Hour seminars
• Attend Master Classes

*Certificate program is ONLY open to Research Staff at UIC.

Position: Research Personnel, Faculty

Topic: Community Engagement

Description:

Sustaining productive academic-community research partnerships requires a deep commitment to ongoing reflexivity and problem-solving praxis to address conflicts that inevitably arise due to inherent power imbalances within the partnership and injustices embedded in the research topic. However, few guidelines exist for how intentional reflexivity among research partners informs praxis for community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships. The Greater Lawndale Healthy Work (GLHW) project is a CBPR study focused on work and occupation as social determinants of health. The GLHW aims to build power, equity, and community capacity to develop community-led approaches to promote healthy work at the neighborhood level. The GLHW is led by a Council of community stakeholders who determine the vision and guiding principles and oversee the implementation of evidence-based interventions. The GLWH Council co-chairs and academic partner co-leads use critical framing and structured, collaborative reflexivity sessions to unpack contradictions and conflicts that emerge as part of the research process to assure attention to equity and justice in our research partnership and processes. In addition to local commitments to equity within the academic partnership, systems change at the academic, institutional, and government (funding) levels are needed to dismantle long-held power advantages maintained by internal processes of the university, to allow for more equity and reciprocity within academic-community research partnerships.

Speakers:

Jeni Hebert-Beirne

Associate Professor

Community-engaged Teaching Initiatives (CEnT), Collaboratory for Health Justice, Community Health Sciences

Melissa Chrusfield

Director Of Hospitality

Lawndale Christian Health Center

TBA

Position: Any

Topic: Biomedical Informatics/Data Science

Description:

QUICKSet, or “Query UIC Knowledge Set,” is the CCTS Biomedical Informatics Core built version of the i2b2 (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside) framework. The purpose of this tool is to allow researchers to access de-identified clinical data from the UI Health system to obtain aggregate patient counts. QUICKSet can facilitate a study by helping researchers to quickly establish the feasibility of carrying out a research study or clinical trial, work through hypothesis creation by continually modifying their own searches, and to identify potential cohorts for clinical trials.

Completion of this training module is required to gain access to the QUICKSet system. Users can request consultations and supplementary services at the CCTS Service Request Site.

Position: Research Personnel

Topic: Data Management

Description:

The focus of this presentation will be to answer the following questions:

1.  Why is data management critical for the conduction of clinical trials?

2.  Why is it so critical to record when data is missing?

Speaker: 
Andrew D. Boyd, MD
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in Data Initiatives and Information/Chief Research Information Officer, University of Illinois Chicago
Associate Chief Health Information Officer for Innovation and Research, UI Health
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences College of Applied Health Sciences University of Illinois Chicago

RC+ Program:
Core Competency #6: Data Management & Informatics

Contact: Sudeshna De, Lawrie Zhang, ccts-training@uic.edu

Position: Faculty

Topic: Career Development

Description:

In this workshop, Dr. Michelle M. Jacob will draw from her Yakama Indigenous teachings to discuss productivity with joy and ease. Participants will be invited to listen and reflect as we collectively honor the importance of storytelling. Dr. Jacob will then guide the group through a process in which each individual is invited to clarify their top priorities, consider aspects in their life that are nourishing or depleting them, and to create a draft plan for being more productive with joy and ease. 

Speaker: 

Michelle M. Jacob, PhD (Yakama)
Anahuy Mentoring, LLC

Contact: Sudeshna De, Lawrie Zhang, ccts-training@uic.edu

Position:

Topic: Human Subject Protections

Description:

CIRTification: Community Involvement in Research Training is a human research protections training program designed especially for community partners. If you will be involved in research and responsible for recruiting research participants, obtaining informed consent, or collecting data, this training is for you.  This course will cover:

• Introduction to Research: The basic terminology, activities, and people involved in research and various ethical considerations.
• Research History: Some research abuses that have happened in the past and the rules we have now to prevent those abuses.  This module also introduces the goals of community engagement in research and the important responsibilities shared by community research partners.
• Eligibility & Recruitment: The importance of adhering to study inclusion/exclusion criteria and best practices identifying and recruiting research participants.
• Informed Consent: The key components of informed consent, the kinds of information included in the consent form, how to respond to participants’ questions about enrollment and withdrawal, and discussion of practical challenges and good practices.
• The Institutional Review Board: The people on the IRB, the process of submitting to the IRB, and the criteria that IRBs apply to the review of research.
• Collecting & Protecting Data: How to protect participant privacy and keep data safe and confidential during collection, transport, and storage.
• Handling Issues in the Field: What do to if you suspect a co-worker of falsifying data, run into a study participant outside of work, and get challenging questions from study participants.