Patterns of HIV Treatment Adherence do not Differ Between Male and Female Adolescents in Botswana.
Dr. Lowenthal and colleagues hypothesized that longer and more frequent dosing gaps among boys in Botswana taking antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection compared to girls could account for previously seen gender-specific differences in outcomes. They monitored 154 male and 134 female adolescents for 2 years with medication event monitoring systems (MEMS). There were no significant gender differences in the number of ≥7 day and ≥14 day dosing gaps. These findings are not consistent with clinically meaningful gender differences in adherence.

Implementation of a Clinical Pathway for Chest Pain in a Pediatric Emergency Department.
Motivated by perceived overuse of cardiology consultation for non-cardiac chest pain in the ED, clinicians from the Divisions of Cardiology and Emergency Medicine collaboratively developed a chest pain clinical pathway, educated staff, and implemented the pathway on March 1, 2014.

Implantation of the Medtronic Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Improves Right Ventricular Size and Function in an Ovine Model of Postoperative Chronic Pulmonary Insufficiency.
Pulmonary insufficiency is the nexus of late morbidity and mortality after transannular patch repair of tetralogy of Fallot. This study aimed to establish the feasibility of implantation of the novel Medtronic Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve (hTPV) and to assess its effect on pulmonary insufficiency and ventricular function in an ovine model of chronic postoperative pulmonary insufficiency.

See more...

Burroughs Wellcome Fund: Career Awards for Medical Scientists (due Oct 3)
The Career Awards for Medical Scientists (CAMS) is a highly competitive program that provides $700,000 awards over five years for physician-scientists, who are committed to an academic career, to bridge advanced postdoctoral/fellowship training and the early years of faculty service. Proposals must be in the area of basic biomedical, disease-oriented, or translational research. Candidates must have received their most recent earned clinical doctorate degree within the last 11 calendar years; Candidates holding K awards are eligible.

Center for Perinatal and Pediatric Health Disparities Research (CPHD) Pilot Grants (due Oct 5)
CPHD offers a Pilot Project Funding Opportunity once a year through its Pilot Grant Program. The purpose of this program is to promote and support health disparities (HD) investigators in research specific to perinatal and pediatric health disparities and health equity. The CPHD Pilot Grant Program aims to engage fellows and junior faculty in HD research and to assist established faculty in developing new lines of research in this area. Investigators from all institutions and disciplines including fellows are encouraged to apply; however, at least one investigator and/or consultant on the project must be from CHOP. The award range is between $2,500 and $10,000 for one year. Projects must be completed within one year. Applications are due October 5. Successful applicants will be notified in November. Awards will have a start date on or around December 1.

AppItUp Challenge (due Oct 9)
The Penn Center for Innovation invites you to participate in the fourth annual mobile app challenge. The AppItUp Challenge provides the opportunity for any Penn student, staff, or faculty member to submit their idea for a mobile app and have it turned into a reality by professional software developers for free. Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP) will offer $50,000 to two finalists.

Rally Foundation (Letter of Intent due Oct 13)
Rally funds research in the following areas: Under-studied cancer types; Innovative approaches to childhood cancer research which could lead to advanced studies or clinical trials; Studies that are likely to lead to a clinical trial, personalized, alternative, or integrated research proposals; Quality of life and survivorship research proposals. The Foundation awards grants in three categories: Fellowship Grants, Young Investigator and Independent Investigator Research Grants, and Consortium Grants.

CHOP Pilot Grant (Letter of Intent due Oct 15)
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is soliciting pilot grants to stimulate new research initiatives between basic and clinical researchers, with at least one of the collaborative PIs based at CHOP. The other faculty may be based at any Penn school. Priority will be given to co-investigators who are forging a new research initiative or to co-investigators who have not yet worked together. Funding will be for one year at $50,000, with an additional year of funding contingent on success towards the research objectives. Please submit your letter of intent (one page maximum, minimum 11 pt Arial or similar font) to Bob DeNight by October 15, 2016. Selected applicants will be asked to submit a full proposal by December 1, 2016.

OnPAR Program for Unfunded NIH Proposals
Last year, the NIH received approximately $30 billion in federal support. In spite of this amount, about 42,500 grants were not funded. To address these unfunded proposals, the NIH has a new Pilot Program that is designed to match researchers with nonprofit disease Foundations or with investments from private companies. Through a new collaboration between the NIH and the private contractor Leidos, researchers can now upload their unfunded NIH Proposals into an online portal at the Online Partnership to Accelerate Research (OnPAR). Foundations and other potential funders can review the NIH scores, and decide whether they might be interested in funding the Projects. Currently, this Pilot Program allows researchers with priority scores better than the 30th percentile to submit their abstracts. Interested Foundations might ask that a researcher send their full NIH Application along with its scores. The consensus opinion is that there are a lot of worthy grants being submitted to the NIH, but there is only so much funding available. OnPAR is one way of trying to match researchers with private Foundations.