By funding pilot research, working groups and innovative small grants in the broad category of health services research, LDI’s Call for Proposals seeks to:
- Stimulate innovative research ideas among the Penn community,
- Encourage the development of new collaborations between investigators of different backgrounds and disciplines
- Encourage cross-school collaborations
Approximately 5-8 projects of up to $20,000 each will be competitively awarded under this solicitation.
2008 Call for Proposals
The
Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) sponsored it's seventh
round of LDI Pilot Projects Program in 2007. Five LDI
Pilot Projects were funded to the following awardees:
The Organization of Emergency Medical Services for Improved Public Health
Principal Investigator: Guy David, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Care Systems
Service Pathways Used by People with Mental Illness Leaving Jail
Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Draine, PhD, MSW, Associate Professor Social Policy and Practices
Expectations and Beliefs about Aging-Related Movement Changes
Principal Investigator: Nabila Dahodwala, MD, Research Assistant Professor of Medicine
Impact of the Medicare Modernization Act on Medicare Part B Drug Utilization and Spending
Principal Investigator: Jalpa Doshi, PhD
Developing a National Survey of Emergency Physician Knowledge and Attitudes on Regionalization of Emergency Services
Principal Investigator: Brendan Carr, MD
Evaluation of a Regionalized System of Adult Critical Care
Principal Investigator Jeremy Kahn, MD
Who is Served and Who is Serving? Race, Health Care, and Health Care Professions Training
Principal Investigator Amy Hillier, PhD
Forecasting Prescription Drug Expenditures for Medicare Beneficiaries: A Comparison between Econometric and Artificial Neural Network Models
Principal Investigator Dan Polsky, PhD
The Effect of Pay-for-Performance Hospital Measures on Vulnerable Populations
Principal Investigator Edmondo Robinson, MD
Selective Adoption: the Case of Surgeons
Principal Investigator Mark Pauly, PhD
Archive of past Pilot Grants
We
are pleased to introduce a new service to LDI Senior Fellows. On a trial
basis, LDI will now produce your scientific posters free of charge.
The service is simple
and we hope it will be of great value to you. For your convenience, we
have created a poster template in PowerPoint.
Click here to download the template:
LDI
Poster template (white)
Using the service
is easy. Here's how:
1. Either the first
or senior author must be an LDI Senior Fellow (but not an Adjunct Senior
Fellow).
2. At least two weeks before you need the poster, download the most recent version of the
template. Last minute poster requests will be considered, but cannot be guaranteed.
3. You will need to save the template download to your desktop
or C drive before inserting poster content. The template is in
PowerPoint format, and should be easy to edit. You will notice that
the LDI logo features prominently. Senior fellows are reminded that
a condition of their Senior Fellowship is that LDI should be mentioned
on all publications and presentations. There is also room for an additional
logo.
3. Replace the
placeholder content with your content. We have provided several
tips (located on the template ) to use as guides in producing these posters.
4. Send the final version of your file
to Elisabeth Brown.
5. Elisabeth will
print the poster and contact you for pick up or delivery.
This is a new
service and we are experimenting with it. We hope it will be of value
and that we can continue to offer it free of charge.
Remember:
If you're unsure how to proceed: contact Elisabeth.
If you have a problem with the process or want to make suggestions:
contact Elisabeth.
We look forward to
working with you.
The LDI Health Services
Data Center (HSRDC) was established in 2005 to facilitate health services
research by LDI Senior Fellows at the University of Pennsylvania using
highly sensitive patient information.
Key
Personnel
David Asch, MD, MBA
Katrina Armstrong, MD, MSCE
Peter Groeneveld, MD, MS
Alexis Greenhut, MPH
Nate Digiorgio
John Quigley
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LDI, Executive Director
LDI, Director of Research
Director, HSRDC
Coordinator, HSRDC
Systems Architect
Consulting System Administrator |
Contact
FAQ
Q1: Why and
how does LDI support the HSRDC?
A1: As it is difficult for any one investigator to sustain such
a costly resource, the HSRDC was established to permit multiple externally
funded LDI investigators to pool grant support and build a unified, synergized
analytic platform. LDI provides sustaining support to bridge the inevitable
variation in grant funding, permit mentored trainees to use the system
in close collaboration with funded LDI senior fellows, and allow unfunded
LDI senior fellows to perform pilot research in preparation of grant applications.
Q2: What are the technical specifications of the HSRDC server environment?
A2: Our server is a Sun Fire V1280 (12-CPU) running Solaris 5.9,
with approximately 10 terabytes of disk storage. The user interface is
the BASH UNIX shell, accessed remotely via secure shell (SSH) connection.
SAS and STATA licenses are maintained on the server, permitting a wide
array of statistical analyses.
Q3: Can the
HSRDC be used for any Penn research project involving health care data?
A3: Because this server environment is maintained at a high security
level in accordance with federal regulations governing secure computer
systems (the Federal Information Security Management Act-FISMA), we are
required to limit the server solely to research using data that require
high security (e.g. data with individually identifiable, protected health
information). Lower security datasets (e.g. anonymous patient surveys,
de-identified data, publicly-available data, etc.) should be stored and
analyzed elsewhere.
Q4: Is there a list of available datasets on the HSRDC server?
A4: Due to internet security concerns, we do not widely publicize
which specific federal and state datasets are available on the HSRDC server.
Interested individuals should discuss these issues directly with Alexis
Greenhut.
Q5: I'm an LDI Senior Fellow who is planning a research project
involving high-security health care data. How can I obtain access to the
HSRDC server?
Q5: LDI Senior Fellows with high security data and funding (or
anticipated funding) to support the HSRDC should contact Alexis Greenhut
to establish a fee schedule and plan the timing, scope, and logistics
of the HSRDC resource use. Ideally, this contact should be made in the
planning stages (e.g., at the time of grant submission) of a research
project, so that the investigator would be able to request the appropriate
amount of grant support for the resource, and to permit adequate preparation
of the computing resources for the project. Additionally, Alexis should
also be notified once notice of funding is received and a start date for
the research project has been established.
Q6: What are the fees for data storage and/or computing on the
HSRDC server?
A6: Data storage and computing fees are estimated on a per project
basis. A formal cost estimate can be prepared for investigators writing
grant applications. HSRDC fees include financial support for IT personnel,
software licenses, hardware maintenance and depreciation, disk space,
CPU time, and data uploading. Minimum annual costs are approximately $3,000
per project, with additional annual costs in proportion to the number
of high-intensity users and the quantity of data used. Requests for formal
cost estimates (e.g., in preparation for a grant submission) should be
sent to Alexis Greenhut.
Q7: I'm an LDI Senior Fellow who does not currently have server
access or grant support, but I wish to conduct pilot analyses on secure
health care data in preparation for a grant application that would provide
server support. How can I obtain access to the HSRDC server?
A7: The pilot protocol should be forwarded to Alexis Greenhut,
who will review the protocol along with Dr. Groeneveld and potentially
other ad hoc reviewers from LDI. Approval for time-limited (typically
12-month) server access will be granted based on the quality and feasibility
of the protocol, the anticipated likelihood of successful external funding,
and the relevance of the research to LDI's mission. Priority will be given
to proposals supported by LDI's annual Pilot Project Program.
Q8: I am not
an LDI Senior Fellow, but I wish to perform research on high-security
health care data, how can I obtain access to the server?
A8: University of Pennsylvania graduate students, clinical fellows,
post-docs, and faculty who are not LDI Senior Fellows can receive HSRDC
server privileges only if they are directly collaborating on a research
project with an LDI Senior Fellow who is currently providing funds to
support the resource. Students and other trainees interested in developing
a project proposal using HSRDC datasets are encouraged to first discuss
potential projects (and project mentors) with their primary dissertation
advisor or faculty mentor.
Q9: How can
I identify an LDI Senior Fellow currently supporting the HSRDC resource
who might be willing to collaborate and sponsor my project on the server?
A9: Email a detailed abstract of your project proposal to Alexis
Greenhut. If you are a graduate student, clinical fellow, post-doc, or
other trainee, you should indicate the name of your primary research faculty
mentor. Alexis will review and forward your abstract to the investigators
who are custodians of the data on the server.
Q10: Am I guaranteed to find a willing collaborator/sponsor among
the LDI Senior Fellows supporting the HSRDC?
A10: Although all LDI Senior Fellows using the HSRDC server are
strongly encouraged to collaborate with other faculty and mentor trainees,
we cannot guarantee that all project proposals will find a "match."
Q11: What if my research project proposal involves use of data
already on the server (i.e., data reuse), rather than "new"
data that I had directly acquired?
A11: Each federal dataset residing on the HSRDC server is governed
by a data use agreement (DUA), which is a legal contract executed between
an LDI Principal Investigator and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS). The DUAs are strict in terms on the research purposes
for which the Federal data can and cannot be used. Individual HSRDC investigators
can not authorize reuse of their data for new projects. Instead, reuse
of CMS data must be approved by CMS through a formal data reuse agreement
(http://www.resdac.umn.edu/Medicare/requesting_data_RIF_ReUse.asp).
Q12: Does a CMS data reuse agreement require approval of the current
data holder?
A12: Yes. Both the current data holder and her/his funder would
need to approve a new research project proposal involving data reuse.
Q13: I'm an LDI Senior Fellow, and I'm undaunted by these requirements.
How would I pursue data reuse?
A13: LDI Senior Fellows would need to have the appropriate funding
to support their use of the HSRDC server, and/or have their own separate
secure computing environment for data analysis that meets CMS' data security
requirements. Email a detailed abstract of your project proposal to Alexis
Greenhut, specifying which datasets you are seeking to reuse. Alexis will
forward your abstract to the investigators who are custodians of the data
on the server.
Q14: I'm not an LDI Senior Fellow, and I'm undaunted by these requirements.
How would I pursue data reuse?
A14: Penn-affiliated investigators who are not LDI Senior Fellows
would need to have their own separate secure computing environment for
data analysis that meets CMS' data security requirements, or they would
need to be collaborating with an LDI Senior Fellow who is currently supporting
the data center (A8, A9). Email a detailed abstract of your project proposal
to Alexis Greenhut, specifying which datasets you are seeking to reuse.
Trainees should include along the name of your primary research faculty
mentor. Alexis will forward your abstract to the investigators who are
custodians of the data on the server.
Q15: Does HSRDC provide programmers or biostatisticians available
to assist LDI Senior Fellows with their data?
A15: Unfortunately, we currently do not provide either programming
or biostatistical support for projects.
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