As our community comes together to combat this pandemic, Research Leadership has provided important procedures on how to keep your participants and study teams safe. We will highlight some important FAQs to keep in mind here in our newsletter, but continue to stay informed by watching for important emails and checking the Lurie Children's COVID-19 informational page.

Given the current COVID-19 environment and increased case counts, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute has provided the following guidelines for our research teams. Please be advised, this is a fluid situation, and we may revert to earlier research restrictions as needed throughout any of the phases in response to changing COVID-19 conditions. We encourage you to check in with your manager, engage your peers, and utilize our organizational resources as needed. As always, any questions or comments are welcome: [email protected].

Every onsite employee should continue daily symptom screening with this link, or scan the QR code with a mobile device.

Our workplace remains a safe environment due to the high rates of vaccination amongst our research staff and demonstrated success of our safety precautions. However, we recognize that the Omicron variant is presenting challenges for our research teams and infection rates may be exacerbated by holiday activities.

As such, remote work may be substituted for onsite work through January 16, 2022, for those employees and trainees whose work responsibilities allow it and have received approval from their supervisors.

As communicated initially on December 1, the Manne Research Institute’s Advisory Committee has designed a unique, anonymous survey aimed at garnering honest feedback from the entire research community.

Please note, this survey does not record your information in any way. You are being asked to log into your Office365 environment as this form is only accessible to individuals with Lurie Children’s email addresses. Should you happen to be logged into another Office365 environment, such as Northwestern, you will not be able to access this form. To fix any errors you may encounter please try troubleshooting with the following steps:

For questions or issues regarding this survey, please contact Kathleen Van’t Hof.

Beatrice Apikos-Bennett has transitioned from her role in the Office of the COO to be the new Program Coordinator for the Office of Research Development. She will contribute her institutional experience and problem-solving skills to the Internal Grant Awards and Scientific Peer Review processes as well as other Research Advancement programs. Apikos-Bennett graduated from the College of Wooster where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology and completed her undergraduate thesis on gentrification and access to affordable healthcare in New York City.

Karen Nachay joins the Manne Research Institute as a Science Writer for the Office of Research Development, where she will work to frame and promote our centers' valuable, groundbreaking research. Nachay is a writer and researcher who has extensive experience covering trends and cutting-edge science in the food and beverage industry. She holds a Master of Science degree in food science and human nutrition and a Master of Arts degree in journalism and has worked as a writer and editor for food science magazines and other media.

This new collection of resources may be used when working with sponsors to provide details on commonly requested information, with the goal of addressing delays in start-up and minimizing administrative burdens. The resources include:

Lurie Children's Hospital is excited to share updates regarding the Workday system implementation. Workday will be replacing existing systems for Human Resources, Finance, and Supply Chain, integrating them into one system. An exciting feature that Workday will offer our research community is a new grants function that promises to improve efficiencies and streamline processes.

View the Workday presentation slides from the December Research Town Hall (.PDF)

Please follow the link below to find detailed information regarding the Workday transformation.

The Clinical Research Unit (CRU) and Medical Imaging Research Office (MIRO) have published new memos regarding the current FY22 Tier Charge Rates. These rates are effective with the start of the new fiscal year, September 1, 2021. Please refer to your study's final budget for more information on the assigned tier level and the specialty support services required per your protocol. Contact [email protected] & [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

It is important to include the Investigational Drug Service (IDS) Pharmacy during all monitoring visits that require education, routine visits, review of records, and tours of facilities. IDS Pharmacy is available for monitor visits Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, with a start time of 1:00 PM, and 3:00 PM CST. Monitors can stay for 90 minutes to finish their visit. Site Initiation visits (SIV) and Site Qualification visits (SQV) are preferred during morning hours (9:00 AM to 12:00 PM CST).  Please note: IDS Pharmacy requires at least 2 weeks advance notice for monitor visits. 

For additional information on how to view the IDS Pharmacy calendar, schedule a visit, and obtain Vestigo access, please refer to the memo on scheduling a monitoring visit with IDS Pharmacy located here (.doc) and at Support Services & Research Administrative Offices on the ResearchPedia site.

Registration is now open for the next Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) course offering. Classes will be held online via Zoom from January 13 to March 31 (12 classes). All classes are scheduled on Thursdays from 3:30-5:00 PM CST. Postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty who have received NIH training or career development awards are required to complete the RCR series, which provides an overview of the principles and expectations of conducting research ethically and responsibly.

View the syllabus (.PDF)

The deadline to submit applications to the inaugural Lurie Children’s Digital Health Investigator Award, which recognizes academic pursuits related to digital health tools, is January 31.

Awards will support digital health projects, such as telehealth, e-visits, remote patient monitoring, decision trees, MyChart functionalities, and open scheduling, that are achievable within 6 months. Resource needs will be scoped/determined based on your pitch, and awards will take the form of people and intellectual resources. Deliverables include conference abstract, pilot data for a QI project, or grant manuscript submission.

Click here to begin the application process. Complete the form indicating your interest and then receive a slide template via email to pitch your idea. Once you submit your slide deck (4 slides maximum) you’ll receive an invitation to participate in a 15-minute pitch session scheduled in February to pitch your idea to Digital Health Leaders and Smith Child Health Catalyst research experts. Submissions received before the January 31 deadline will have the opportunity to receive feedback in advance of the pitch session, though early submissions are not required. You may also attend optional drop-in sessions held on Fridays in January to refine your idea with a member of the Digital Health Investigator Award team. A link to office hours will be included in the email with the slide template.

Awardees will be selected based on their presentation at a pitch session in February, and the winners will be notified in March. For additional information on the Digital Health Academic Resources to aid in your project, please review the tools listed below.

For an in-depth review of these resources, refer to the most recent Digital Health LEAD Series, “Accelerating Academic Productivity in Digital Health: Primer on Resources,” by scanning the QR code above.

The Family & Child Health Innovations Program (FCHIP) has announced the first recipients of the Different Approaches to Data (DAD) Pilot funding. The DAD Pilot program is designed to encourage researchers to expand their work beyond a maternal-child or dyadic focus and to begin to collect data that allows for a holistic and contemporary view of families. These Pilot funds can be used to expand research to include fathers (or partners) in creative ways to collect data. Click on the announcement link below to learn more.

During National Healthcare Quality Week, five storyboard winners were chosen through a rigorous judging process by 65 of your Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute colleagues and senior leadership. The Operational Excellence Award went to the Manne Research Institute's own Clinical Trials Office for the “Acceleration of Study Start-up Timeline.” View the story board here.

Have a news item to share? Click here.

If you have an upcoming media opportunity, contact the Office of Research Development for assistance.