Fellowship Research Opportunities
Learn more about our fellowship opportunities
Dennis Drotar, Ph.D.
1. Established Data Sets
- Data from prospective randomized trial (one year follow-up) of problem solving intervention to promote adherence to treatment among economically disadvantaged African-American adolescents with chronic asthma. Manuscripts will focus on the prediction of trajectories of adherence to treatment over time.
2. Opportunities to participate as interventionist in randomized controlled studies
- Randomized trial of problem solving intervention to promote adherence to medication (oral maintenance) treatment in adolescents with leukemia in a NIH funded multisite study. Fellow will learn problem solving intervention model and will conduct manualized treatment under supervision
- Randomized trial of motivational interviewing and text messaging to promote adherence to treatment in adolescents and young adults with lupus. Fellow will learn motivational interviewing intervention and will conduct this manualized treatment under supervision
3. Opportunities to Conduct Assessment and Intervention and Participate in Adherence Center's Clinical Research Program
- Fellows will conduct clinical assessment and interventions with children and adolescents who are referred to the Adherence Center for assessment and intervention and will participate in development and implementation of a research-based evaluation of this program.
Kevin Hommel, Ph.D.
1. Established Data Sets:TASCC study: the primary aims of this longitudinal study are to assess adherence in adolescents with IBD using a multimethod approach and to identify patient and family behavioral correlates of nonadherence. This study involves baseline and 6 month follow-up assessments. It is ongoing, and there are several opportunities for authorship on manuscripts.
- IBD clinic database: this database contains data on bioassay measurement of adherence, self-efficacy for disease management, patient disease severity, frequency of clinic visits, demographics, etc. There are also opportunities for authorship with use of this database.
2. Opportunities for Intervention and Development of Intervention Studies:
- PACCT study: The primary aim of this study is to test the efficacy of a family-based group behavioral treatment protocol to improve adherence in adolescents with IBD. The fellow would have the opportunity to be the lead treatment provider. Additionally, the fellow would have the opportunity to develop and pilot interventions aimed at improving adherence in IBD patients (both children and adolescents).
3. Other New Projects:
- IBD DATA study: the primary aim of this study is to monitor adherence beginning at diagnosis of IBD through transition to adult care. This study will be in the early stages in summer/fall 2008.
- Headache adherence study: the primary aim of this study will be to examine adherence rates in pediatric migraine patients.
- Grant writing experience can be provided with respect to development of RO3 or similar grants focused on adherence assessment and/or intervention in IBD, EE, headache, and celiac disease.
Korey Hood, Ph.D.
1. Established Data Sets:
- Pediatric Diabetes and Family (PDF) Study (cross-sectional). This data set contains child and family functioning variables that are general and diabetes-specific (type 1). It also contains biologic and adherence data. A fellow may be interested in further examining the diagnostic interview data or other associations among these variables.
- Pediatric Diabetes and Family (PDF) Study (longitudinal). This data set should have nearly 150 families in it by the summer. Some families will have 6 month data as well. A fellow may be interested in combining the data sets and looking at trends in delivery of care by site. Further, if recruitment continues to go well, we could have nearly 350 families in a combined data set. Analysis of depression rates, family functioning, and adherence would be possible. Within a year, we will have data on three visits across one year for these families.
- Adolescent Diabetes and Depression (ADD) study. This pilot study of the intervention proposed in the RO3 should contain data on close to 20 families by the end of the summer. A fellow may be interested in analyzing pre-post differences as well as specific components that changed over time.
2. Opportunities for Intervention work:
- ADD study. The pilot study may still be going in the summer and could certainly be stretched in to the fall. Besides being able to conduct sessions, the fellow would be able to help refine the intervention and help to update session content and activities. If funding does come in, there would an opportunity to start the intervention. Study population is adolescents with type 1 diabetes and depression (and their families). Intervention includes family-based approach and CBT for depression.
Avani Modi, Ph.D.
1. Established Data Sets:
- Family View – This study examined parenting stress, child social support, children's perception of weight, caregiver quality of life, and generic and disease-specific health-related quality of life in approximately 120 treatment-seeking children with obesity. Three papers are currently being developed from this study: 1) validation of an obesity-specific parent-proxy measure of quality of life, 2) validation of a self-reported obesity-specific quality of life measure, and 3) the influence of caregiver quality of life on the parent-proxy reporting of quality of life. Several additional manuscripts could be developed from this study, including examination of social support and parenting stress by a fellow.
- International Depression Study – This study examines depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms in children, adolescents, and adults with cystic fibrosis. It also examines caregiver anxiety and depressive symptoms and caregiver quality of life. The final sample, which should be complete by April 2008, will include approximately 140 individuals with CF and their families. The fellow could be involved in conducting statistical analyses and the development of a manuscript examining prevalence rates of anxiety and depressive symptoms in both patients with CF and their caregivers, as well as the relationship between them.
- Family-Day Study – Deconstructing Family Activity Patterns in Children with New-Onset Epilepsy Utilizing Computerized Phone Diaries – This study examines activity patterns of 30 families of children with newly diagnosed epilepsy and 30 matched controls over 3 time points (e.g., 2 weeks after diagnosis, 1.5 months after diagnosis, and 5 months after diagnosis). In addition, parenting stress was evaluated at the first time point. No data analyses have been conducted for this study. The fellow could become involved with database management, cleaning complex data produced from the diary, and conducting longitudinal data analyses.
- Evaluating Clinical Outcomes of Children with New-Onset Seizure Disorders – This study was a retrospective chart review of health-related quality of life for patients seen through the new-onset seizure clinic. PedsQL questionnaires are completed by parents at each visit, resulting in longitudinal HRQOL data from pre-treatment through the course of treatment (e.g., every 3 months). The fellow could become involved in analyzing these data and manuscript preparation.
2. Ongoing Data Collection:
- Adherence and Barriers in Children with Epilepsy – This is an ongoing longitudinal study examining adherence with electronic monitors and self-report over a 2-year period of time, as well as factors that predict/influence adherence. Data collection includes measures of family functioning, barriers to adherence, parenting stress, family stress related to epilepsy, epilepsy knowledge, behavioral and emotional functioning, social stigma, generic and epilepsy-specific health-related quality of life, antiepileptic drug side effects, epilepsy specific concerns and fears. Fellows could become involved in a variety of ways:
a. Data collection in a clinic-based setting/environment
b. Study oversight, including management of volunteers related to data entry, etc.
c. Analysis of baseline data and manuscript preparation depending on subject of interest (e.g., can choose constructs)
d. Analyzing data involving population pharmacokinetic models and electronically measured adherence
3. Other Potential Projects:
- Impact of Social Support on Adolescents with Cystic Fibrosis – We have submitted a grant to the CF foundation to evaluate the impact of social support on psychosocial and health outcomes. If this grant is funded, there will be several opportunities for involvement, including writing the IRB, protocol development, initiation of the study, study recruitment, multi-site interactions, learning and conducting daily phone diaries, etc.
Ahna Pai, Ph.D.
1. Established Data Sets: (describe the project aims, the population, and the data that will be available)
- I will have two sets of data with the Kidney Transplant Population. I will have some qualitative data from the interviews that we are doing. I will also have some data on the Allocation of Treatment Responsibility Scale study that I am conducting right now. Below is a short study description:
The purpose of the proposed study is to facilitate and accelerate adherence research in renal transplant by
- Developing child- and caregiver-report measures of the allocation of treatment responsibility;
- Evaluating preliminarily reliability and validity of the treatment responsibility measures. To develop the treatment responsibility measures structured interviews will be conducted with 20 children who have had a renal transplant and their caregivers and the interview content qualitatively analyzed. The thematic information gathered from the interviews will be used to construct child and caregiver forms of treatment responsibility. The measures derived from the qualitative analysis will then be administered to 40 children who have had a renal transplant and their caregiver(s) to preliminarily examine the psychometric properties of the instruments. The treatment responsibility measures will be validated by examining their relationships with child and family outcomes as well as electronic and bioassay indicators of adherence. Measures included in this study are: Child Medication Barriers Scale (Simons & Blount, 2007), Medical Adherence Measure (Zelikovsky & Schast, 2004), Filial, Parental and Collective Family Efficacy Beliefs, Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory- Child Report, Version 4 (Varni, 1998), Children's Uncertainty in Illness Scale (Mullins & Hartman, 1995), Children's Hope Scale ( Snyder et al., 1997)
By the summer I will probably start collecting data that I proposed for the first phase of my K award application. But this will not be ready to analyze in the summer.
2. Opportunities to be an Interventionist and Develop an Intervention Study: Describe population, specific aims, and type of intervention.
- I will be developing the intervention study for the K award. The intervention will not be underway yet. The postdoc would have the opportunity to assist in the development of the intervention. This way I will have a jump on the project whether it gets funded or not. This intervention is going to take a long time to develop due to the fact that I am trying to integrate it within the clinical environment and determine a way to use real time adherence feedback. This opportunity would probably not be available until the fall or spring.
- An intervention will be developed to improve adherence oral medication regimens in the renal transplant population. The intervention will be a clinic based intervention that targets the allocation of treatment responsibility. The intervention will be comprised of seven sessions (2 outside of clinic, 5 in clinic). The multidisciplinary intervention will consist of providing real time feedback to patients regarding adherence outcomes and targeting illness-specific and general family processes related to adherence. The aim of this study will be to develop and pilot an intervention to improve adherence to Tacrolimus regimens by clarifying the ATR within the family.
