What's New - 2007 Archive What's New - 2006 Archive
08/19/2008
Westat’s Health Sector has entered into an agreement with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to operate the CHOP-Westat Biostatistics and Data Management Core (BDMC). The BDMC supports investigators from virtually all subspecialties of pediatric medicine and is currently involved with more than 70 studies, ranging from narrowly defined basic science projects to very large, multisite clinical trials.
Westat is excited about the opportunity to join forces with this premier research institution, and we are confident that our strong reputation in health research, coupled with the abilities of the BDMC staff, will advance these research efforts.
Twenty-three professionals already working at the BDMC have become Westat employees, as part of Vice President Steve Durako’s study area. The BDMC staff includes biostatisticians, clinical data analysts, data managers, and others. The Philadelphia-based staff will be augmented by management, technical, and support staff from our Rockville, Houston, and North Carolina offices.
Westat welcomes these new staff members located on the CHOP campus in Philadelphia.
For more information:
Contact Westat
08/04/2008
Westat health marketing professionals and health communication researchers will participate as presenters at the Second Annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media [*] in Atlanta, Georgia, from August 12-14, 2008.
The conference is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the National Public Health Information Coalition. It will explore how public health professionals can engage with the public and partners to develop and more effectively disseminate health information and interventions to improve the health of individuals and their communities.
A list of materials to which Westat staff (names in bold) will contribute follows.
Stephen Babb (Office on Smoking and Health [OSH], CDC). (Presentation.)
Results of a health
communications study that analyzed media coverage of tobacco topics and messaging managed by Lance
Potter and Terry Savage for OSH.
Terry Lofton and Shayna Heller. (Poster session.)
Highlighting the
success of the Eagle Books series in Native communities; describing plans to debut new books and
broaden the reach of diabetes prevention messages through multiple community-level channels (stage plays,
museum exhibits, “Talking Circles,” powwows, classroom activities, and art workshops).
Lisa Patton and Dianne McElroy. (Poster session.)
Gaps in health marketing campaigns and successful
prevention strategies regarding the development and delivery of effective HIV/AIDS prevention messages
targeting older adults.
Lance Potter and Jasmin Tiro (NCI). (Presentation.)
Methods used to investigate the
influence of a pharmaceutical marketing campaign on local news coverage of the human papillomavirus (HPV)
vaccine.
Terry Savage and Maureen Gardner (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). (Poster session.)
Evidence-based strategies for communicating with at-risk drinkers.
Mekkla Thompson. (Presentation.)
Social marketing approach for zinc promotion strategies for childhood
diarrhea in diverse populations and communities, highlighting an experience from the Philippines.
For more information:
Contact Westat
07/31/2008
Westat was awarded the contract to continue operation of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component for a base year (2009) and 3 option years for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
MEPS is a major national survey that has produced annual estimates of health insurance coverage, health care use and expenditures, and related topics since 1996. Westat has managed the survey since its first collection of data in 1996.
Under the survey's overlapping panel design, Westat will enroll a new panel of 8,000 to 10,000 households each year and administer computer-assisted interviews to the household members 5 times over a 2½-year period. The interviews will collect information on the household members' use of health care services, payments for those services, and a variety of factors that affect the use of health care services.
After data from the household interviews have been matched with information obtained from medical providers (under a separate contract), Westat will process the data and prepare public use files, continuing the sequence of annual data releases.
The data are made available by AHRQ through its MEPS web site [*] and are widely used by public and private researchers. The data are used to study how people in the United States use and pay for health care and how they are affected as the health care system changes over time.
For more information:
Contact Westat
07/18/2008
Westat researchers will be participating as authors, panelists, discussants, session chairs, and organizers in this year's Joint Statistical Meetings, sponsored by the American Statistical Association (ASA), the International Biometric Society (Eastern and Western North American Regions), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the Statistical Society of Canada. More than 5,000 statisticians are expected to attend.
Presentations will cover a wide range of topics, including longitudinal surveys, small-area estimation, the role of statisticians in understanding climate change, accuracy of election polls, and methodological issues such as variance estimation, imputation for nonresponse, reducing disclosure risks, improved sample designs, and a variety of other topics. The meeting will be held in Denver, Colorado, from August 3-7, 2008.
In addition to the presentations, Westat Senior Statistician Dr. Jill Montaquila will be named a Fellow of ASA. The honor of Fellow is awarded to one-third of 1 percent of the membership of the ASA each year, based on the individual's contributions and service to the profession.
A list of papers, presentations, and sessions to which Westat staff (names in bold) contributed follows. For details on the time and location of each session, refer to the Joint Statistical Meetings Preliminary Program [*].
Dwight Brock. (Organizer and Chair.) In Remembrance of Paul Minton: Statistician, Educator, and Advocate for Statistics -— Invited — Papers.
Siobhan Carey, Carolyn Shettle, Daniel Mont, and Susan Stobert. (Panelists.) Are Disability Statistics Relevant and Useful for National Policies and Programs?
Lester R. Curtin and Sylvia Dohrmann. When Good Weights Seem Bad: Nuances of Sample Weights in the NHANES.
Sylvia Dohrmann. (Organizer.) Beyond Design: Reaching Out with NHANES Data — Topic Contributed — Papers.
Sylvia Dohrmann. (Chair.) Data-Driven Methods on Survey Data — Topic Contributed — Papers.
Robert E. Fay. The False Discovery Rate in ACS: Helping Users Understand Estimates for Small Domains.
David Ferraro, Tom Krenzke, and Jill Montaquila. Considerations for the Implementation of an RDD Telephone Survey.
Ismael Flores Cervantes. (Chair.) Variance Estimation — Contributed — Papers.
Ismael Flores Cervantes and J. Michael Brick. Empirical Evaluation of Raking Ratio Adjustments for Nonresponse.
Daifeng Han and David Cantor. Cell Phone-Only Households in a National Mail Survey: Who Are They?
Lee Harding, Sylvia Dohrmann, Lin Li, and Lester R. Curtin. Using Digital Imagery to Update the Measures of Size of Area Segments.
Frank Jenkins. Multilevel Modeling in Large-Scale Assessments with Informative Sampling Weights.
Bryce Johnson and Jill Montaquila. Challenges and Methods in Creating Secondary Sampling Units for Area Probability Samples.
Clifford L. Johnson, Leyla Mohadjer, and Lester R. Curtin. National Nutrition Data: Methodological and Analytic Experiences of NHANES.
David R. Judkins. (Organizer and Chair.) Innovative Methods for Imputation — Invited — Papers.
David R. Judkins, Andrea R. Piesse, and Tom Krenzke. Multiple Parametric Imputation.
Graham Kalton. (Discussant.) Robust Methods in Small-Area Estimation — Invited — Papers.
Jeffrey Kerwin and David Cantor. Examining Mode Differences in the Health Information National Trends Survey.
Tom Krenzke. (Organizer.) Reducing Disclosure Risks While Reaching Out to the Data Needs of the Public — Invited — Papers.
Tom Krenzke, Leyla Mohadjer, and Lin Li. Evaluating the Within-Household Selection Procedures for In-Person U.S. Adult Literacy Surveys.
Hyunshik Lee. (Chair.) Which Way to Weight? Bias vs. Variance — Contributed — Papers.
Hyunshik Lee and Tom Munk. Power Analysis for the Regression Discontinuity Design.
Sunghee Lee, Tom Belin, Christopher Pankonin, J. Michael Brick, and Jennifer Edgar. Responsive Design for Random Digit Dial Surveys Using Auxiliary Survey Process Data and Contextual Data.
Lin Li, Annie Lo, Greg Norman, and Hyunshik Lee. Imputation of Missing Data for the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Survey.
Tiandong Li and Robert Mislevy. Multiple Imputation for Latent Variables in Classical Test Theory for Cluster Samples: A Simulation Study.
David A. Marker. (Organizer.) Accurate Elections: The Role of Statisticians — Invited — Papers.
David A. Marker. The ASA-Sponsored Workshop on Climate Change.
David A. Marker. (Organizer and Chair.) Late-Breaking Session I: The Accuracy of Election Polls.
Leyla Mohadjer, Robert E. Fay, and Lester R. Curtin. Producing Local Area Estimates for NHANES.
Jill Montaquila. (Chair.) Imputation for Item Nonresponse — Contributed — Papers.
David Morganstein. (Chair.) Improving Survey Quality Reinterviews, Paradata, and Comprehension — Contributed — Papers.
Andrea R. Piesse, Randy Sitter, and X. C. Feng. Using the SIMEX Method to Estimate Temporal Change for a High-Scoring Group.
B. Rey de Castro. (Chair.) Models for Longitudinal Data — Contributed — Papers.
John W. Rogers. Imputation of Nondetects in Environmental Concentration Measurements.
Gary Shapiro. (Chair.) Statistics Can Help Reduce Child Mortality — Invited — Papers.
Wendy VanDeKerckhove, Jill Montaquila, and J. Michael Brick. Using a Large-Scale Field Study to Estimate Nonresponse and Noncoverage Biases in an RDD Survey.
For more information:
Contact Westat
07/11/2008
Westat researchers will be making a variety of presentations at the XVII International AIDS Conference [*] (AIDS 2008) in Mexico City, August 3-8, 2008. The theme of this year's conference is Universal Action Now. Westat staff (names in bold) will be contributing as follows:
Karen M. Megazzini, Namwinga Chintu, Sten H. Vermund, David T. Redden, Daniel W. Krebs, Maureen Simwenda, Bushimbwa Tambatamba, Moses Sinkala, and Jeffrey S.A. Stringer. (Poster.) Predictors of Rapid HIV Testing Acceptance and Successful Nevirapine Administration in Zambian Labor Wards. (Completed by the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.)
Karen M. Megazzini, Moses Sinkala, Sten H. Vermund, David T. Redden, Daniel W. Krebs, Edward P. Acosta, Joyse Mwanza, Robert L. Goldenberg, Namwinga Chintu, and Jeffrey S.A. Stringer. (Presentation.) A Cluster-Randomized Trial of Enhanced Labor Ward-Based PMTCT Services to Increase Population Nevirapine Coverage in Lusaka, Zambia. (Completed by the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.)
Moussa Sarr, Birahim P. Ndiaye, Hugues Loemba, and Mwenda Yasa. Overall and Diarrhea- or Lower Respiratory Infections-Related Mortality Among Formula-Fed and Breast-Fed Children of HIV1-Infected Women in Africa: A Meta-Analysis.
Be sure to check the full program of events [*] for more specific information on the various presentations and sessions that will be held during this conference.
For more information:
Contact Westat
06/26/2008
The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) has given its 2008 Policy Impact Award to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The presentation was made at the AAPOR Annual Conference in New Orleans, May 15-18.
The award recognizes AHRQ's extraordinary, long-term group effort in contributing timely data and research that has informed U.S. health care policy decisions. Key collaborators to the MEPS program include the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of the Census, and Westat.
MEPS has collected detailed information about the use and payment for health care services from a nationally representative sample of Americans for 2 decades. The research program includes health care data collection, development, and research, and the translation of research into practice with the goal of identifying strategies to improve access, foster appropriate use, and reduce unnecessary expenditures. Few other surveys provide the foundation for estimating the effect health care changes have on different economic groups and special populations, such as the poor, elderly, veterans, uninsured, and racial and ethnic groups.
In the past several years, MEPS data and associated research findings have quickly become a linchpin for the Nation's economic models and their projections of health care expenditures and utilization. MEPS data have been used in hundreds of scientific publications and many more unpublished reports. MEPS findings have been used by many Federal agencies to inform congressional policy decisions, and in the public and private sectors to help develop economic projections.
For example, MEPS research findings have been used extensively by the Congressional Budget Office, U.S. Department of Treasury, Joint Taxation Committee, and U.S. Department of Labor to inform congressional inquires related to health care expenditures, insurance coverage, and sources of payment, and to analyze potential tax and other implications of Federal health insurance policies. MEPS is also used to develop estimates provided in the Consumers' CHECKBOOK Guide to Health Plans of expected out-of-pocket costs (premiums, deductibles, and copays) for Federal employees and retirees for their health care.
For more information:
Contact Westat
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/ [*]
06/12/2008
Researchers from Westat recently participated as authors, session chairs, and discussants at the 2008 conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in New Orleans, Louisiana, held May 15-18, 2008. This year's theme was Polls for the Public Good with a special plenary session co-sponsored with Tulane University focusing on the role survey research can play in facilitating policy decisions that work best for the public good.
Presentations covered a wide range of topics, including surveying cell phones, health surveys, questionnaire design, issues in nonresponse, mode effects, and many more methodological issues. Over the summer Westat staff who attended this year's AAPOR conference will be presenting papers of interest at upcoming brown-bag seminars.
A list of papers and presentations to which Westat staff (names in bold) contributed follows.
David Kashihara and Diana Wobus. Household Medical Expenditure Data: A Comprehensive Report of the Completeness and Accuracy of Survey Responses.
David M. Grant, Sunghee Lee, J. Michael Brick, Royce J. Park, and W. Sherman Edwards. Design and Implementation of an Area Probability Sample to Explore Nonresponse Bias in an RDD Survey.
Wendy Hicks, Brad Edwards, Karen Tourangeau, Lauren Harris-Kojetin, Abigail Moss, and Brett McBride. CARI: A Tool for Improving Data Quality Now and the Next Time.
Ryan A. Hubbard. Putting a Profile of Asset Value Nonresponse to Work.
Sunghee Lee, David M. Grant, Royce J. Park, and J. Michael Brick. Use of an Area Probability Sample Survey to Explore Nonresponse and Noncoverage Bias in an RDD Survey.
David Cantor and Daifeng Han. Comparing a National Mail Survey to a Random Digit Dial Survey for the Health Information National Trends Survey.
Mary Hagedorn, Wendy Van De Kerckhove, Priscilla Carver, J. Michael Brick, and Jill M. Montaquila. Design and Implementation of an In-field Follow-up Study to Evaluate Bias in an RDD Survey.
Wendy Van de Kerckhove, Jill M. Montaquila, and J. Michael Brick. Bias Estimation and Findings from an In-Field Follow-up Study Designed to Evaluate Bias in an RDD study.
W. Sherman Edwards, J. Michael Brick, and David Grant. Relative Costs of a Multi-frame, Multi-mode Enhancement to an RDD Survey.
Dale W. Kulp, J. Michael Brick, and Mansour Fahimi. Biases in RDD Sampling: A 21st Century Digital World Reassessment.
J. Michael Brick, W. Sherman Edwards, and Sunghee Lee. Sampling & Weighting Cell Phone Samples to Supplement RDD Surveys.
Martha S. Kudela, Kerry Levin, Debra Stark, Gordon Willis, Salma Shariff-Marco, and Nancy Breen. Does Behavior Coding Help Determine Which Questionnaire Version is Best?
W. Sherman Edwards, Sid Schneider, Suzie Burke-Bebee, Ritu Agarwal, Corey M. Angst, and Daniel Sangria. Measuring the Adoption of Health Information Technology in the United States: Bringing Consistency to Survey Approaches.
For more information:
Contact Westat
06/03/2008
The National Center for Education Statistics has awarded the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten Cohort of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:11) to Westat.
The ECLS-K:11 involves contacting 900 public and private schools in order to follow 21,000 children, selected when they were in kindergarten, through the fifth grade. In the base year alone, 2010-11, two data collections will be conducted, each with the children, parents, and teachers/administrators, in the fall and the spring. Westat and its team will design the study, collect and process the data, as well as provide analyses.
ECLS-K:11 is the third in a series of longitudinal studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. It shares many of the goals of its predecessors, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K:98), and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort of 2001 (ECLS-B), but also advances research possibilities.
The ECLS-K:11 will provide important information on children's early learning and development, transitions into kindergarten and beyond, and progress through school. It will provide data relevant to emerging policy-related domains not measured fully in previous studies.
Coming more than a decade after the ECLS-K:98, it will allow cross-cohort comparisons of two nationally representative kindergarten classes that faced different policy, educational, and demographic environments.
For more information:
Contact Westat
05/21/2008
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has launched the Health Care Innovations Exchange [*], a new Web resource developed by Westat. The Innovations Exchange enables users to share and discover innovations in the delivery of health services. It is also designed to facilitate networking and learning about the process of innovating and adopting the innovations of others. According to Mary Nix, project officer for the initiative, the Agency aims to make this site an important tool for health care leaders, physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who seek to reduce health care disparities and improve health care overall.
The AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange is also the new home of the Agency's QualityTools initiative, which pulls together hundreds of publicly available tools useful for understanding, evaluating, and improving the quality of care.
"We're very proud and excited to be a part of this critical Government-sponsored initiative to support the spread of innovations in the health care field," commented Dr. Veronica Nieva, Westat's project director for the Innovations Exchange. "The public and private sector have always invested a great deal of money and time in spreading clinical innovations, such as new pharmaceuticals and technologies. This project represents a much-needed effort to put the same kind of energy and attention into innovations in the delivery of health care, which traditionally does not get the same kind of attention but affects all of us."
The web site was launched with searchable descriptions of 100 innovations—mostly successful ones but also some that were not found to be effective. All readers are invited to share comments on their experiences with these and similar innovations. Westat is also working with experts in the health care field to develop critiques and commentary on specific innovation. By making this kind of information widely available, AHRQ and its contractors seek to support health care organizations in learning from one another and building on each other's successes. The site will be updated every 2 weeks with new innovations and QualityTools.
The AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange also offers various opportunities for learning from experts in innovation and networking with fellow innovators and innovation adopters. In addition to articles on various topics, users of the Innovations Exchange will have access to topic-specific discussion groups, webcasts, and learning networks facilitated by Westat staff.
Westat continues to seek submissions of potential health care innovations from the health care community. AHRQ is particularly interested in innovations that help reduce health disparities in populations of interest to the Agency, including low-income groups, minority groups, women, children, the elderly, and individuals with special health care needs.
Westat produced the Innovations Exchange under contract with AHRQ and in partnership with Silverchair, Business Intelligence, the Severyn Group, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
For more information:
Contact Westat
05/12/2008
Dr. Robert E. Fay has joined Westat's Statistical Group. He joined Westat after a 34-year career with the U.S. Census Bureau. After working in the Statistical Research and Statistical Methods Divisions, Dr. Fay completed his career at the Census Bureau as the Senior Mathematical Statistician.
As a senior statistician here at Westat, Dr. Fay will spend his time on a variety of projects in a number of capacities, including providing technical expertise, serving as a team member on major projects, and writing proposals. He will also help design surveys and work on statistical modeling and application. Dr. Fay has a strong interest in health and education issues and looks forward to pursuing statistical work in those fields of research.
Dr. Fay is particularly interested in working with the next generation of statisticians. "I am motivated to help mentor younger statisticians. The whole field depends on the next generation," he explained. "I look forward to working closely with them."
Dr. Fay will also continue pursuing a number of other statistical interests outside of Westat. Since 1978, Dr. Fay has regularly acted as consultant to major television networks for election night coverage, providing predictions and other analyses. He is currently a CNN consultant during this busy election season.
Dr. Fay has worked with a number of notable statisticians on election night results: "I worked with Joe Waksberg at CBS News on election night coverage years ago. He was as his reputation," noting that it was an honor to work with Mr. Waksberg, former Westat Chairman of the Board and Senior Vice President.
Dr. Fay will also continue to serve as a frequent peer reviewer for Science and has served in that role for a number of other journals, including the Journal of the American Statistical Association, the American Statistician, International Statistical Review, and others. He has also served as proposal reviewer to the National Science Foundation and UNICEF.
While at the Census Bureau, Dr. Fay earned a number of awards, including the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medal Awards from the U.S. Department of Commerce, and three times the Secretary's Exceptional Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2005 he earned the Roger Herriot Award for Innovation in Federal Statistics from the American Statistical Association (ASA).
Dr. Fay is Fellow of ASA and a member of several other professional societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Psychological Science, Washington Academy of Sciences, and the Washington Statistical Society.
We are honored to have Dr. Fay as a member of our team and welcome him to Westat.
For more information:
Contact Westat
05/01/2008
The Health Information Resource Center (HIRC), a national clearinghouse for consumer health information programs and materials, organizes the semi-annual World Wide Web (WWW) Health Awards. This Web-based health awards program is an extension of the HIRC's 14-year old National Health Information Awards (NHIA), the largest program of its kind in the United States. Westat projects received four awards in the Fall/Winter 2007 competition.
Award: Gold
Class: Advertising/Marketing Information
Division: Government
Audience: Children 0-12 years and/or parents
Award: Merit
Class: Patient Education Information
Division: Government
Audience: Other Allied Professionals
Award: Merit
Class: Patient Education Information
Division: Government
Audience: MDs/PhDs/RNs
Award: Merit
Class: Patient Education Information
Division: Government
Audience: All Adults 21+ years
For more information:
Contact Westat
04/24/08
Westat researchers participated in this year's American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, discussing a wide range of topics, including special education, science instruction, teacher training, mentoring, and analysis of large-scale assessments, among others. The meeting was held in New York City from March 24-28, 2008, with more than 14,000 in attendance. A list of papers and presentations to which Westat staff (names in bold) contributed follows.
Janis Brown, Robert C. Perkins Jr., and Stephen Roey. Defining Special Education Students: Masking the Achievements of Students with Disabilities in the NAEP High School Transcript Study.
Tamara Cohen Daley and Elaine Carlson. Predicting Change in Eligibility Status Among Preschoolers in Special Education.
Gavin Fulmer. Successes and Setbacks in Collaboration for Conceptual Science Instruction: Relating Changing Teacher Practices to Contextual Pressures and Student Learning Outcomes.
Jennifer Hamilton and Cathy Lease. Impact of Training on Teacher Attitude. Roundtable discussion.
Frank Jenkins. Multilevel Modeling of Large-Scale Assessments with Deleted Levels and Informative Weights.
Craig Love, Elmima Johnson, and Tamara Bertrand. Mentoring in Evaluation: Establishing the Foundation.
Kimberley Raue, Gary Silverstein, Glenn Nyre, and Keith MacAllum. Involving Informal Science Institutions in K-12 STEM Reform: Case Study Findings.
Kathryn Schiller, Janis Brown, Stephen Roey William Schmidt, and Chandra Miller. Course Inflation: Measuring Mathematics Curriculum Exposure.
Denise St. Clair, Harriotte Heinzen, Frank Jenkins, and Elaine Carlson. Defining Risk for Preschoolers with Disabilities and Predicting Educational Performance.
Barbara Williams. Career Opportunities to Conduct Educational Research Influencing National Policy Decisions and Constructing Research Agendas. Roundtable discussion.
For more information:
Contact Westat
04/11/08
Westat will be exhibiting at several health-related conferences and job fairs this year. Representatives will be on hand to speak with prospective clients and staff. See the following list for conferences, dates, and sites.
Partnerships with CROs
When: April 14-16, 2008
Where: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada
Booth number: 405
www.cropartners.com [*]
BioCapital Career Fair
When: April 17, 2008
Where: Bethesda Marriott, Bethesda, Maryland
Booth number: Westat
www.biospace.com [*]
Society for International Development (SID) Washington 2008 Annual Career Fair
When: May 7, 2008
Where: Academy for Educational Development, Washington, DC
Booth number: Westat
www.sidw.org/2008AnnualCareerConference [*]
Society for Clinical Trials 29th Annual Meeting
When: May 18-21, 2008
Where: Hyatt Regency St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
Booth number: 100
www.sctweb.org [*]
Global Health Council International Conference
When: May 27- 31, 2008
Where: Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC
Booth number: 304
www.globalhealth.org/conference [*]
American Public Health Association (APHA) 2008 Annual Meeting and Expo
When: October 25-29, 2008
Where: San Diego, California
Booth number: 1530
www.apha.org/meetings [*]
For more information:
Contact Westat
04/09/08
Westat's programming staff provided their expertise at the SAS Global Forum 2008, from March 16-19, in San Antonio, Texas. The SAS Global Forum conference, known as the premier source of news and ideas for SAS software users, drew about 3,800 attendees for 3 days of technical presentations on SAS software programming techniques and use.
Westat staff members Stuart Long and Michael A. Raithel were invited to present SAS technical papers. In addition, Rachel Brown, Jennifer Fulton, Edward Heaton, Sigurd Hermansen, Stanley Legum, Stuart Long, and Michael A. Raithel all presented contributed papers. Altogether, Westat staff presented 9 SAS technical papers at the conference. Over the last 12 years, Westat staff have presented more than 170 technical papers at SAS conferences.
Duke Owen, Conference Executive Board member, and Rick Mitchell, Conference Section Chair, served organizational roles in the conference.
The list of papers presented by Westat staff and co-authors follows (Westat staff names in bold).
Rachel Brown and Jennifer Fulton. CSI: San Antonio - Common SAS Issues in Our Programs and Tips for Better Investigation of Your SAS Code.
Edward Heaton. Many-to-Many Merges in the Data Step.
Sigurd Hermansen. Evaluating Predictive Models: Computing and Interpreting the c Statistic.
Sigurd Hermansen (co-authors Himanshi Singh and Laura Hrycyk). SAS Scripting of a Production Database into an Open Test Environment.
Stanley Legum (co-author Sigurd Hermansen). Existential Moments in SAS Programming: SAS PROC SQL EXISTS and NOT EXISTS Quantifiers, and More.
Stuart Long (co-authors Jeffrey Abolafia and Lawrence Park). Adventures in ODS: Producing Customized Reports Using Output from Multiple SAS Procedures.
Stuart Long and Edward Heaton. Using the SAS DATA Step and PROC SQL to Create Macro Arrays.
Michael A. Raithel. Powering Your Organization's Web Applications with SAS Software.
Michael A. Raithel. Supporting SAS in a Research Environment.
For more information:
Contact Westat
03/26/08
The career of Dr. Edward C. Bryant, a Westat founder and statistician, was commemorated on March 13, 2008. Dr. Bryant was the former President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, and trustee of Westat's Employee Stock Ownership Plan. He died in January at the age of 92.
The audience included several of Dr. Bryant's family members, including his wife Virginia (Ginny) Bryant, and two granddaughters, Nina Bryant Freeman and Katie Kirkpatrick. Many Westat alumni attended the tribute, including James M. Daley and Donald W. King (co-founders of Westat), Doris Northup, Matt Lee, Stephen K. Dietz, and Carla E. Maffeo, plus nearly 200 current senior and junior staff.
The invited speakers included many from his career. All of their comments shared a common thread: an appreciation for Dr. Bryant's sense of humor, integrity, honesty, dedication, and generosity of spirit.
David R. Morganstein, Westat Vice President, spoke of Dr. Bryant's ease and ability in mentoring younger staff through their careers and how he left them feeling inspired, encouraged, and appreciated. Senior Statisticians Dr. Keith F. Rust and Dr. Richard L. Valliant talked about how Dr. Bryant was not only a mentor and colleague but also a neighbor and family friend. "He was a true gentleman; we will always value him," said Dr. Rust. Dr. Valliant added that Dr. Bryant and his wife "taught us what the lives of genuinely good people could be like," and that he was everlasting grateful to him for that experience.
Nancy W. Caldwell and Debra S. Vivari, Westat Vice Presidents, spoke from a project staff perspective about how Dr. Bryant treated colleagues like family and how he valued and appreciated the opinions of all staff.
Donald King, one of Dr. Bryant's partners in starting Westat, discussed Dr. Bryant's role as an educator and reminisced on his love for writing and instructing others in the field of statistics. Doris Northrup remarked on how Dr. Bryant reminded us that big things can come from humble beginnings. Thomas W. McKenna, Westat's Executive Vice President, discussed the many professional accomplishments of Dr. Bryant and noted that his unique business sense and aggressive decisions were critical contributions to earning key contracts early in our history.
Joseph A. Hunt, President of Westat, concluded the tribute, remarking on Dr. Bryant's valued leadership. "His ability to assemble and retain a talented and effective staff enabled our company to grow and prosper," noted Mr. Hunt. "His commitment and resolve made possible our return to employee ownership with its broad-based benefits shared throughout our company. Most important, his integrity and emphasis on quality remain the foundation of our corporate culture."
We at Westat feel a deep sense of loss with Dr. Bryant's passing. He was a valued colleague, mentor, and friend.
For more information:
Contact Westat
03/18/08
The Society for Technical Communicators (STC) recognized five Westat products in its Distinguished Technical Communications 2007-08 Competition, [*] one for Best of Show and four others for Awards of Merit. The products were commended for applying the principles of technical communication in outstanding ways, particularly in how they anticipate and fulfill the needs of their audience.
Westat's video, Gaining Cooperation: Contact, Connect, Convince, was selected as Best of Show in the Online Communications Category. The video is part of the new package of basic interviewer training materials for Westat data collectors. Westat's Field Training Committee and Graphics Department collaborated to create this interactive video training program.
Four other Westat projects received Awards of Merit:
This short training program uses a combination of character and form animations to create a refresher training program for school staff who must select samples for the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Nearly 30 posters were created for various NCI-related meetings throughout North America. Graphic artists worked with individual clients to create a unique identity for each meeting that could be used in supplemental materials, such as handouts, CDs, and name tags.
The 2007 Westat Calendar is a company-wide collaboration, produced under the direction of the Westat Human Resources Department for use by field staff. Each year all staff are invited to submit photographs around a theme. "Motion," the 2007 theme, had compelling images, which were combined with bright colors and calendar features to create an attractive, functional product.
This 97-page report summarizes the findings of leading cancer biology scientists and researchers. Westat's content and design experts combined the information with supporting images and graphs.
For more information:
Contact Westat
02/14/08
Westat will continue to support the public communication and inquiry response activities of the National Institutes of Health's National Eye Institute (NEI). Westat provides health information in response to thousands of inquiries from the public each month; administers a cost recovery program; ships millions of NEI publications from a distribution center in Frederick, Maryland; and develops, maintains, and hosts NEI's public web site [*].
NEI conducts and supports research that helps prevent and treat eye diseases and other disorders of vision. This research leads to sight-saving treatments, reduces visual impairment and blindness, and improves the quality of life for people of all ages.
For more information:
Contact Westat
02/01/08
Dr. Edward C. Bryant, statistician and a founder of Westat, died January 17, 2008, in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. He was 92.
Dr. Bryant established Westat in 1963 while on the faculty of the University of Wyoming. In 1966, he moved the employee-owned company to Montgomery County, Maryland, where it is headquartered in Rockville.
Westat has grown into one of the leading survey and statistical research organizations in the United States and one of the largest employers in Montgomery County.
Dr. Bryant served as President and Chairman of Westat's Board of Directors. He was serving as trustee of Westat's Employee Stock Ownership Plan at the time of his death.
Dr. Bryant earned a master's degree from the University of Wyoming and a doctorate in mathematical statistics from Iowa State University. He published numerous professional papers and a widely used textbook, Statistical Analysis. Dr. Bryant was a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as a member of many other professional societies.
In 1995, a scholarship [*] was established in his name by Westat and is awarded annually to a talented graduate student in statistics under an agreement with ASA.
Dr. Bryant is survived by his wife of 66 years, Virginia (Ginny) DeGering Bryant, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. His son, Eddie Bryant, his daughter, Bonnie Kirkpatrick, and a granddaughter preceded him in death.
Dr. Bryant was a man with incredible talent and generosity throughout his life, giving to his family, to Westat, and to the statistical profession in general. He will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know him and work with him.
A commemoration of Dr. Bryant's contributions to Westat is planned. Details will be announced at a later date.
For more information:
Contact Westat
01/26/08
Westat will provide user-centered design, development, and maintenance services for two high-profile National Institutes of Health (NIH) web sites: the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) web site [*] and the NIH Stem Cell Information web site [*].
Project staff have plans to design and develop two web sites, one to promote awareness of Usher syndrome and the other aimed at preventing noise-induced hearing loss. Westat will also enhance and maintain NIDCD's intranet and advisory council web sites. For all sites, Westat will be responsible for HTML maintenance, graphic design, usability testing and implementing recommendations, compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, and search engine optimization.
For more information:
Contact Westat
01/10/08
Westat is partnering with Metis Associates to evaluate initiatives of the Center for Economic Opportunity, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's effort to move economically disadvantaged New Yorkers out of poverty. The initiatives are focused on young adults, poor working adults, and families with young children.
The Westat team will examine approximately 35 programs to determine which can best be evaluated, develop an evaluation design, and work with the selected programs to systematically collect information for evaluating impact, program implementation, and cost-benefit.
For more information:
Contact Westat
* Related Internet link - Westat is NOT responsible for the privacy practices or the content on other web sites. (See Westat's Privacy Policy.)
