Research April 2024 Newsletter

Colleagues,

It is that time of year to welcome temperate weather, pollination, and new growth. It also marks the winding down of the academic year. Carilion Clinic Research Day celebrated the accomplishments of our employees and students. The number of presentations and posters has led us to rethink how these accomplishments can best be disseminated to the research enterprise. To this end, we have enclosed a survey in this newsletter to capture your suggestions and comments for consideration. As many commented during the day, we have a “good” problem to solve regarding the best way to present over one hundred abstracts. The quantity and quality of research from Carilion Clinic, in collaboration with our academic partners, continue to rise, leading to local, national, and international recognition.

Regards,
Francis X. Farrell, PhD
Senior Director, Research and Development

Family Medicine Research has an ongoing collaboration with the Center for Health Behaviors Research at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. This NIH funded study is looking for people with type 2 diabetes who are interested in learning strategies to better manage type 2 diabetes through a fully remote research study. Learn more: https://www.carilionclinic.org/DiabetesStudy

 iTHRIV NIH Proposal Development Support

iTHRIV has developed a bundle of resources geared toward NIH proposal development . Please visit each portal page for relevant information. 

Want to know more about clinical research at Carilion Clinic? Click on the Clinical Research Fast Facts image to learn more!

Congratulations!

Mariana Salamoun has been promoted to Manager within the Health Analytics Research Team (HART). She has over 24 years of experience with healthcare research, data management, and reporting. More than four years experience with research Epic build, informatics, and systems administration. Mariana has a BS in Biology, MA in Clinical Psychology, as well as certifications in research billing, Research Clinical, and Clarity Data Model proficiency. 

Research and Development is pleased to announce that Andrea Yu-Shan has accepted a new position as a Clinical Research Manager for R&D, effective May 19th, 2024. Andrea will be supporting the departments of Orthopaedics, Surgery, and Emergency Medicine. She will also support our VTCSOM clinical research coordinator and several R&D clinical research coordinators. Andrea has been an employee of Carilion Clinic for the past four years, supporting research activities in the Department of Orthopaedics. She recently obtained her certification as a Certified Clinical Research Professional via SoCRA and will completing her Master’s Degree in Clinical Research Administration later this year. She brings to this position a wealth of knowledge and experience regarding investigator-initiated studies, clinical trials, and study portfolio management. Andrea has been instrumental in several processes that have bolstered research operations within Orthopaedics and will continue to expand her management and leadership skills in this new role

New Employee's 

Christina Case, MS - Clinical Research Coordinator II – Radiology
Christina Case joined our team as a Clinical Research Coordinator II for the Radiology department in October. Christina grew up in Southwest Virginia and earned dual bachelor's degrees in both Biological Sciences and Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise from Virginia Tech in May 2020. After graduating from VT, she immediately pursued a master's degree at Wake Forest and later began working in the pharmaceutical industry in North Carolina. Christina and her husband recently relocated back to Virginia and welcomed their first baby in December. She is very excited to have switched from the pharmaceutical R&D space to the more patient-facing clinical research industry.

Grace-Anna Chaney, MA - Data Science Engineer Biostatistician II - HART
Grace-Anna has over ten years of experience in clinical research positions, including experimental design, methodology, statistical analysis, and manuscript development. She has experience in healthcare, academic and industry settings with areas of discipline including behavioral health, substance use disorders, oncology, cardiovascular, infectious disease, and neuropsychology. Grace-Anna is a peer-reviewed author and presenter and national and international conferences. 

Cameron Hooten, BS - Clinical Research Coordinator II - Emergency Medicine
Cameron recently joined our team as a Clinical Research Coordinator supporting Emergency Medicine.  She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Biology Pre-Health from Radford University. Since then, Cameron has gained research experience working as a Research Assistant at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.

Business Expense Policy Change - Reimbursements Regarding Research Overhead Accounts

Please note that all research related reimbursements, such as that for research conference travel, research training opportunities, proposal development, and other items at the discretion of the Carilion Clinic Department Chair(s), Academic Dean or equivalent, as allowed by our Facilities and Administration Funds Distribution policy, must be submitted for reimbursement within 90 days. If the expense is submitted for reimbursement after 90 days of the transaction date, it becomes taxable income to the employee. Starting April 15, 2024 anything past 90 days will not be processed. In the case when conferences or flights are purchased beforehand, the 90-day limit will start on the last day of the conference or the return flight.

Carilion Children's Pediatric Oncology Research

Did you miss it? Carilion Children's Pediatric Oncology discussed their current research during the IRB Lunch and Learn on March 27th. Watch a recording of this presentation here. 

Current R&D Job Openings 

Pre-Award Grants Management Administrator - Hybrid
Carilion Research & Development is growing!  We are adding a Pre-Award Grants Management Administrator to our team.  We seek an energetic individual who can work independently with investigators to facilitate strategic team development, plan innovative projects, and communicate effectively.  The role will focus primarily on preparing competitive research and programmatic grant proposals for federal, state, and private funders.  Previous experience with federal grant funding and pre-award requirements is highly desired.  If you are mission-driven and have a heart for improving community health, come share your talents with us!

Clinical Research Coordinator - Surgery
Under general supervision of the Principal Investigator, assists with administrative activities associated with the conduct of research studies including industry sponsored, grant funded or internally funded studies while maintaining compliance with guidelines set by governing agencies and institutional policy.

Clinical Research Assistant - Emergency Medicine
The Clinical Research Assistant will be under general supervision of the Principal Investigator, and assist with administrative activities associated with conducting research studies including industry-sponsored, grant-funded, or internally funded studies while maintaining compliance with guidelines set by governing agencies and institutional policy. This position will be assigned to support minimal risk or non-interventional studies, unless assigned to serve in a support function for greater than minimal risk studies that also include a Clinical Research Coordinator or Clinical Research Nurse. 

Carilion Clinic TriNetX Virtual Training Schedule

Carilion offers instructor-led, focused training for an in-depth, step-by-step learning experience building patient cohorts and delving into Analytics. The facilitator will be Dee Myers. Please get in touch with HART@carilionclinic.org with the subject of 'TriNetX Training' for training outside of the scheduled sessions. If you haven’t taken a class or need a refresher, this is your opportunity to do so!  Let Dee Myers know which date you prefer and she will send a meeting invitation.

• April 10, 10:30 a.m. – noon
• April 25, 1:30 - 3 p.m.
• May 8, 10:30 a.m. – noon
• May 23, 1:30 – 3 p.m.
• June 6, 10:30 a.m. – noon
• June 19, 1:30 – 3 p.m.
• July 9, 10:30 a.m. – noon
• July 24, 1:30 – 3 p.m.

TriNetX User Agreement:  https://redcap.link/v5pw9j7j

For more information visit: https://carilionclinic.org/health-analytics-research-team

My Project Path:

Resources and Processes for Research, Grants, and QA/QI

Want to do a project, but don’t know where to start? Or, experienced but want to see what new resources are available?

To learn about Carilion’s resources and processes for Research, Grants and QA/QI, visit https://redcap.link/MyProjectPath.  This tool provides easy navigation to topics of interest, including links to the Research and Development Application and the IRB PRIS3M application.

* Carilion Clinic Research and Development is honored to partner with a growing list of prestigious national and statewide research centers and healthcare organizations. Find out more about our collaborative research initiatives; explore our unique public-private partnerships with the Virginia Tech Carilion (VTC) School of Medicine, Virginia Tech, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Radford University Carilion, and others. Connect with our team to discuss opportunities to collaborate with our experts or become a participant.