Consult, Coordinate, and Critique: How the University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine Came To Be Ranked #2

• Activity Number: 252
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2008 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Consulting
• Author(s): Bruce A. Center*+ and Anne M. Weber-Main and Carole J. Bland
• Companies: The University of Minnesota and The University of Minnesota and The University of Minnesota
• Keywords: Effective Grant proposals ; Family Medicine ; Statistical support in Academic medical departments ; Collaboration

Abstract

Statisticians are necessary and powerful partners during a research proposal's development, but our effectiveness is mediated by knowledge of the investigator's content area and time to guide them through multiple cycles of writing-review-rewriting. We describe how the U of MN Family Medicine Dept. used a core support team of three PhDs---with expertise in statistics, design, evaluation, measurement, and scientific writing/editing---to rise to #2 in the department's NIH ranking, without hiring more research faculty. In brief: 1) Investigators consult with us early to refine the project's aims, hypotheses, importance, design, and analytic plan. 2) We coordinate a timeline for the proposal's development by investigators and support staff. 3) We critique proposal drafts through formal internal peer review. We depict the underlying system: what worked, what didn't, and current status.