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07/26/2010

Joint Statistical Meeting Draws Westat Researchers as Participants

Researchers from Westat will be participating as authors, panelists, discussants, session chairs, and organizers in this year's Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, July 31-August 5, 2010. The conference is expected to attract more than 6,000 statisticians from around the world.

JSM is jointly sponsored by the following organizations:
  • American Statistical Association
  • International Biometric Society (Eastern and Western North American Regions)
  • Institute of Mathematical Statistics
  • Statistical Society of Canada
  • International Chinese Statistical Association
  • International Indian Statistical Association

Westat staff presentations and discussions will cover a wide range of topics, including measurement of elusive populations and phenomena, balancing individual privacy with access to data for policy making, implementation issues for statistical standards, methodological issues such as causal modeling, address-based sampling, two-phase data collection designs, coverage bias in random digit dial surveys, small-area estimation, and a variety of other topics.

Two senior Westat statisticians will be participating as officers of the American Statistical Association (ASA):
  • David Judkins will be serving as overall program chair for the 2011 JSM to be held in Miami Beach, Florida.
  • David Marker, Ph.D., serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the ASA, Chair of the Status Committee of the ASA Council of Chapters Governing Board, and Chair of the ASA Scientific and Public Affairs Committee.

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 JSM Preliminary Program [*].

Johnny Blair and Pat Dean Brick. Methods for the Analysis of Cognitive Interviews.

J. Michael Brick (Discussant). Conducting Effective Nonresponse Bias Analysis Studies in Household and Establishment Surveys. Invited—Papers.

J. Michael Brick (Organizer and Chair). Two-Phase Data Collection Designs. Topic—Contributed Papers.

David Cantor, Richard Sigman, Daifeng Han, and Maribel Aponte. A Two-Phase Sample for the National Survey of Veterans.

Ralph DiGaetano, Jim Green, Jay Clark, and Marshall Fritz. Multiple Frame Sample Design and Estimation for the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses: Theory, Implementation, and Assessment.

Brad Edwards (Chair). Variance Estimation in Complex Sample Designs. Contributed—Papers.

W. Sherman Edwards, J. Michael Brick, Royce Park, and David Grant. Implementing Two-Stage Interviewing in an RDD Survey.

Jiaquan Fan. Testing the Robustness of BUGS and MPLUS.

Robert E. Fay (Discussant). Current Applications of Small-Area Estimation Using Data from Complex Surveys. Invited—Papers.

Robert E. Fay and Jianzhu Li. Effects of Unbounded Interviews, Time-in-Sample, and Recency on Reported Crimes in the National Crime Victimization Survey.

David Grant, Sunghee Lee, Royce Park, J. Michael Brick, and W. Sherman Edwards. Sampling Children and Teens in a Cell Phone Health Survey.

Daifeng Han, Jill Montaquila, Douglas Williams, and J. Michael Brick. An Examination of the Bias Effects with a Two-Phase Address-Based Sample.

Valerie Hsu, Jill Montaquila, and J. Michael Brick. Predicting Areas Where USPS-Based Address Lists May Be Used in Place of Traditional Listing.

David Judkins (Chair). JSM 2011 Program Committee Meeting.

Jennifer Kali, Tom Krenzke, Keith Rust, and John Burke. Weight Calibration across Subject-Specific Samples in the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Graham Kalton. Challenges in Sampling Elusive Populations.

Tom Krenzke (Panelist). Balancing Individual Privacy with Access to Data for Policymaking.

Hyunshik Lee. Variance Estimation for a Small Number of PSUs.

Shin-Jung Lee, James Lepkowski, Kristen Olson, and Dandan Zhang. Incorporating Nonresponse Follow-Up into a Main Survey Data Set.

Jianzhu Li and Robert E. Fay. Assessing the Association between the Crime Rates from the National Crime Victimization Survey and the Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

David A. Marker. Are 911 Listings Good Enough to Use as a Sampling Frame for Area Surveys?

David A. Marker (Chair). Council of Chapters Governing Board Status Committee Meeting.

David A. Marker (Chair). Scientific and Public Affairs Advisory Committee Meeting.

Nancy Mathiowetz, Rob Andrews, J. Michael Brick, and Lynne Stokes. A Pilot Test of a Dual Frame Mail Survey of Recreational Marine Anglers.

Jill Montaquila (Roundtable Discussant). Planning for Nonresponse Bias Analyses.

Jill Montaquila, J. Michael Brick, and Douglas Williams. Maximizing Response for Households with Children in a Two-Phase Address-Based Sample.

David Morganstein (Discussant). Implementation Issues for Statistical Standards. Topic Contributed—Papers.

Andrea Piesse, David Judkins, Laura Alvarez-Rojas, and William R. Shadish. Causal Inference Using Semiparametric Imputation.

Keith Rust and Pam Broene. Design Effects for Totals in Multistage Samples.

Sarah Shore, Jill Montaquila, and Valerie Hsu. The Presence and Characteristics of Households at Addresses Obtained by Field Listing and from USPS Lists.

Richard Sigman (Chair). Novel Survey Design and Estimation Methods. Contributed—Papers.

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07/19/2010

Cancer Registries Association Recognizes Westat's Work, Contributions

Westat's work and member contributions were recognized at the June 2010 North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) Annual Conference held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Cancer data collected and processed by Westat for the Maryland Cancer Registry were submitted to the NAACCR for evaluation on quality, completeness, and timeliness measures. The NAACCR certified that Maryland data achieved the Gold Standard for all certification measures. This is a tremendous achievement due to the dedication and professional expertise of Westat staff working on the Maryland Cancer Registry Quality Assurance and Data Management contract.

Serban Negoita, M.D., Dr.P.H., a Westat epidemiologist and Senior Study Director, received the Member Recognition Achievement Award. The award is given to acknowledge the continuous voluntary contributions made by NAACCR members.

NAACCR is a professional organization that performs the following:

  • Develops and promotes uniform data standards for cancer registration;
  • Provides education and training;
  • Certifies population-based registries;
  • Aggregates and publishes data from central cancer registries; and
  • Promotes the use of cancer surveillance data and systems for cancer control and epidemiologic research, public health programs, and patient care to reduce the burden of cancer in North America.

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07/13/2010

International AIDS Conference Includes Westat Presenters

Westat researchers will be making a variety of presentations at the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) [*] in Vienna, Austria, July 18-23, 2010. The theme of this year's conference is Rights Here, Right Now.

Westat staff (names in bold) will be contributing as follows:

Jennifer S. Read, Geraldo Duarte, Laura Freimanis Hance, Jorge Pinto, Beatrice Santos, Elizabeth Telles, Regina Succi, Jorge Alarcon, and Sonia K. Stoszek. Trends in the Management and Outcomes of HIV-infected Women and Their Infants at Sites in Latin America and the Caribbean: 2002-2009.

George K. Siberry, Ricardo H. Oliveira, Margot Krauss, Suzanne Essama-bibi, Cristina Hofer, D. Robert Harris, Adriana Tiraboschi, Ricardo de Souza, Heloisa Marques, Regina Succi, Thalita Abreu, Marinella Della Negra, Rohan Hazra, and Lynne M. Mofenson. Viral Load Predicts WHO Stage 3 and 4 Events in HIV-infected Children on HAART, Independent of CD4 T-lymphocyte Value.

Raphael Taty-Taty, Obengui Obengui, Abel Abengui, Chancel Guimbi, Moussa Sarr, and Hugues Loemba. Lipid Profiles of HIV-infected Congolese Patients Treated with Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTI) Combined with AZT and 3TC.

Pablo Tebas, Florin Tuluc, Wayne Wagner, Deborah Kim, Huaqing Zhao, René Gonin, Jeffrey Barrett, Renae Catalano, James Korelitz, Donna Butler, and Steven Douglas. A Phase IB Study Evaluating the Safety and Antiviral Activity of Aprepitant, a Neurokinin 1 Receptor Antagonist in HIV-1 Infected Adults.

Ibrahima Traoré, Moussa Sarr, Birahim P. Ndiaye, Pape G. Sow, Mamadou C. Dia, Marie Cissé, and Souleymane Mboup. Loss of Follow-up Among HIV-infected Female Sex Workers Receiving ARV in Dakar, Senegal.

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.

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07/08/2010

Westat Expands Health Information Technology Staff

The mission of Westat's Center for Health Information Technology is to support the transformation of health care through the appropriate use of health information technology (HIT). To further that goal, our staff has expanded to include the following specialists in this field:

  • Colene Byrne, Ph.D. in Information Sciences (concentration in Health Information Policy and Management), Rockefeller Institute, State University of New York.
    Dr. Byrne led HIT evaluation projects, including a nursing home informatics project and the first Nationwide Health Information Network health information exchange pilot; assessed the value of the Veterans Health Administration's investment in HIT through benchmarking and cost benefit analyses; and developed HIT tools and "lessons learned" for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
  • Elizabeth Freedman, M.P.H., Emory University; M.S.W., University of Pennsylvania.
    Ms. Freedman served as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has more than 10 years of experience as a health technical writer.
  • Douglas Johnston, M.T.S. in Ethics (with a concentration in Health Policy), Harvard Divinity School.
    Mr. Johnston evaluated health information exchanges, assessed the value of the Veterans Health Administration's investment in HIT, developed a cost-benefit model for the value of health information exchange and interoperability, and identified IT trends.
  • Lauren Mercincavage, M.H.S. (with a concentration in Health Policy), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
    Ms. Mercincavage has evaluated the value of the Veterans Health Administration's investments in HIT, health information exchanges, and the sustainability of Nationwide Health Information Network pilot sites.
  • Eric Pan, M.Sc. in Medical Informatics, Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); M.D. (with distinction), Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
    Dr. Pan has led analytic and modeling efforts relating to HIT and its cost-effectiveness, evaluated health information exchanges, and overseen scientific methodology for HIT activities.
  • Cynthia Russell, M.S. in Nursing, University of Alabama, Birmingham.
    Ms. Russell is a master's-prepared nurse with a graduate certificate in nursing informatics from the University of Maryland and has more than 30 years of professional experience, including more than 17 years in nursing leadership positions at Frederick Memorial Hospital.
  • Adam Vincent, M.P.P. (Health Policy), Georgetown University.
    Mr. Vincent assessed the value of electronic prescribing related to Meaningful Use, personal health records, and telemedicine adoption. He also assessed the performance and value of the Veterans Health Administration's HIT investments.

Westat welcomes these skilled professionals to the staff and looks forward to their contributions in accelerating innovation and adoption of new technologies in HIT.

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07/01/2010

Westat Staff Assume Key Roles at Washington Statistical Society

The Washington Statistical Society (WSS) Board elected its members in June. Several key roles on the board will be held by Westat statistical staff:

  • J. Michael Brick, Ph.D.: President (July 2010-June 2011)
  • Jane Li, Ph.D.: Treasurer (July 2010-June 2012)
  • David Judkins: Methodology Section Chair (July 2009-June 2011)

Other non-elected Westat employees on the board include the following committee chairs:

  • Jill Montaquila, Ph.D.: Quantitative Literacy Committee
  • Daifeng Han, Sylvia Dohrmann (outgoing): Short Course Committee
  • Tom Krenzke: Curtis Jacobs Memorial

Also, Keith Rust, Ph.D., is a member of the Hansen Lecture Committee, Bob Clickner, Ph.D., is the Science Fair Coordinator, and Bob Fay, Ph.D., serves on the Herriot Award Committee as the representative from the American Statistical Association's (ASA's) Social Statistics Section.

The WSS is the largest, most active chapter of the ASA with about 900 members. Members work in the government, academic, and private sectors, spanning many disciplines. Members' interests and expertise cover an extensive range of areas in applied and theoretical statistics, data collection, survey methods, and allied subjects.

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06/11/2010

Cancer Registries Conference Includes Westat Staff

Westat staff will be participating in this year's North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) Annual Conference [*]. The meeting will be held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, from June 19-25, 2010.

The theme for this year's meeting is Renewed Collaboration: A Modern Paradigm for Cancer Surveillance. Presentations will explore how existing and future cancer surveillance activities can collaborate across disciplines, jurisdictions, and organizations to enhance relationships, joint initiatives, and mutual learning.

Westat staff (names in bold) will be participating in the following:

Mary Mesnard. (Poster presentation.) Crossing Boundaries for Central Cancer Registry Professionals.

Serban Negoita. (Paper.) Association of Demographic Characteristics with Anatomic Stage/Prognostics Groups in Prostate Cancer.

Serban Negoita. (Paper.) Determinants of Collaborative Staging Input Items Availability: Maryland Experience 2004-2008.

Westat staff also provided support for the following presentations:

Assessing the Reliability and Validity of Primary Payer Information in Central Cancer Registry Data. C. Verrill, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ICD-9-CM Updates and U.S. Adoption of ICD-10-CM Coding Standard: Major Changes in Health Information Coding Practice and Implications for Cancer Surveillance. J. Ruhl, National Cancer Institute (NCI)/SEER.

The 2010 Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Neoplasm Project: What It Means for Central Registries. NCI/SEER.

Westat will be exhibiting at Booth 200 in the exhibit hall. Westat project staff members Marsha Dunn, Serban Negoita, Amy Solis, Mary Mesnard, and Sarah Sherman-VanDeventer will be available to provide meeting attendees an opportunity to learn about our projects and capabilities.

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06/09/2010

Westat to Provide Key Role in Knowledge Sharing Network for Clinicians

Westat will provide a key role in supporting clinicians around the nation as they implement electronic health records (EHRs).

For the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Westat will be assisting in planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating a collaborative Knowledge Sharing Network (KSN). This effort will be conducted for 60 regional extension centers (RECs).

The KSN will allow RECs to share practical experiences and knowledge, leverage external expertise, and develop and share best practices for the successful support of implementing and using EHRs in clinical practice.

Two important aspects of Westat's work will be:

  • Developing communities of practice, and
  • Designing standard procedures and formats for developing or identifying and disseminating best practice materials.

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06/04/2010

Westat to Participate in Global Health Council Conference Exhibit Hall

Westat will be exhibiting at this year's Global Health Council's (GHC's) Annual Conference [*] in Washington, DC, from June 14-18, 2010. The GHC is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout the world.

The theme of this year's meeting is Dateline 2010: Global Health Goals and Metrics. This theme is of particular relevance to Westat's domestic and international work. Westat is one of the foremost health and social science research organizations in the United States, collecting and analyzing information to improve the health, education, environment, and overall well-being of people worldwide.

Attendees are encouraged to visit Booth 304 in the exhibit hall to speak to Westat project staff members. Brenda Brewer, Karen Stewart, Jack Cahill, Tom Scialfa, and others will be available to discuss our projects and capabilities.

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06/01/2010

Laurie May, Ph.D., Joins Westat Staff

Laurie May, Ph.D., joined Westat in April as a Vice President. Dr. May brings an extensive research background in economic analysis, health policy research, and program evaluation for Federal agencies.

Over the course of her career, Dr. May has assessed access to care, quality of care, the effectiveness of new and alternative benefit options, the utilization of services, and the cost-effectiveness of alternative ways of organizing and financing service delivery. She has extensive experience working with Federal health data sets and claims data and in bringing together disparate data to support research.

Before joining Westat, Dr. May was Senior Vice President for Health Care Policy at ICF International where she developed and oversaw ICF's health care policy projects. Her research centered on program evaluation and assessment, with a focus on the development of improvements.

Prior to this position, Dr. May was Director of Health Care Programs and Market Leader for Health Care for CNA Corporation. In these roles, she designed and oversaw the company's health work. This research focused on health economics issues and other health policy challenges.

We look forward to working with Dr. May and welcome her to our organization.

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05/17/2010

Evaluation of Student Support Services Released

Does a Federal program to provide supplemental services to disadvantaged students help them to succeed in college? Westat conducted the National Evaluation of Student Support Services to uncover the answer. The findings [*] were released in late April by the U.S. Department of Education.

Student Support Services (SSS) provides supplemental services to participating students at selected colleges receiving SSS grants. Two-thirds of these students must be low-income and first-generation college students or students with disabilities. The other third must be low-income or first-generation college students. One-third of the disabled students also must be low income. The services these students receive can include counseling, tutoring, study labs, and instructional courses, to name a few.

The study looked at five student academic outcomes:

  • Retention in college,
  • Transfers from 2-year to 4-year institutions,
  • Degree completion,
  • Cumulative GPA, and
  • Cumulative total credits earned.

In this longitudinal study, Westat tracked the progress over 6 years of 2,900 student participants in SSS and 2,900 comparable students who did not participate in SSS. The study had a quasi-experimental design: Regression models and propensity scores were used to select a group of comparison students who were matched as closely as possible to the SSS students.

Some of the major findings of the study were as follows:

  • The receipt of supplemental services was correlated with improved student academic outcomes. This finding was consistent across all measures of academic outcomes and all types of statistical models.
  • Supplemental services continued to be important after the freshman year. In fact, the later-year services appear to show a stronger relationship to long-term outcomes than first-year services.
  • A few SSS services appeared to stand out by being related to improved student outcomes. However, some additional types of services also were related to improved student outcomes, though they were not necessarily SSS services. Also, there is some evidence that what may be most important is that students receive an appropriate "package" of services.

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05/11/2010

TRICARE Management Activity Awards Demonstration Project to Westat

Westat has been awarded a contract by TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) to carry out a demonstration project on the use of specific preventive health services offered to military members and their families. TMA manages the TRICARE health care program for active duty personnel, retired service personnel, National Guard/Reserve personnel, family members, survivors, and others entitled to U.S. Department of Defense medical care.

The goals of this demonstration project are to evaluate the efficacy of providing the following:

  • Incentives to encourage healthful behaviors among a non-Medicare eligible, retired population enrolled in TRICARE Prime; and
  • An annual preventive health services allowance to active-duty military service members.

Westat will enroll a total of 6,000 beneficiaries (including family members) from each of the two groups and then receive extracted information about completion of the required health services from existing military databases. In some cases, if health data are not available from the military databases, Westat will contact study participants to obtain permission to contact their civilian health care providers and confirm the completion of the activities. This information will be collated and analyzed on an annual basis. The specific required activities to receive the incentive or allowance differ between the two groups but will cover a wide range of lifestyle behaviors and health concerns, including physiologic and biometric measures. For active duty military members, preventive services such as the following will be required, as age appropriate:

  • Colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer screenings;
  • Annual physical and dental examinations;
  • Weight and body mass screening; and
  • Immunizations.

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05/06/2010

Westat Staff to Participate in 65th Annual Public Opinion Research Conference

A contingent of Westat staff will be attending and exhibiting at the 2010 conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) [*] in Chicago, Illinois, on May 13-16. The theme of this year's conference is Opportunity through Diversity. Westat staff will be presenting papers, briefs, and poster presentations, as well as serving as session discussants.

Presentations submitted by Westat staff cover a variety of topics: multilingual survey design, effects of offering alternate survey modes, bilingual questionnaires, issues in survey design, use of incentives, address-based sampling, multiphase and multistage survey methods, issues in noncoverage and nonresponse, and other methodological issues.

In addition to the presentations, Brad Edwards, a Westat Vice President and Associate Director, and Janet Harkness will be co-teaching a short course titled Multilingual, Multicultural, and Multinational (3M) Survey Design Methods: Applied.

Mr. Edwards will also be participating in a Meet the Author session with his co-authors Janet Harkness, Michael Braun, Tim Johnson, Lars Lyberg, Peter Mohler, Beth-Ellen Pennell, and Tom Smith to discuss their new book, Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts.

A list of papers and presentations contributed by Westat staff (names in bold) follows.

Pat D. Brick, David Cantor, Daifeng Han, and Maribel Aponte. Incorporating a Web Option in a Two-Phase Mail Survey.

Brad Edwards and Ryan A. Hubbard. The Burden of Proof: Panel Attrition and Record Usage on the MCBS.

W. Sherman Edwards, J. Michael Brick, Royce Park, and David Grant. A Two-Stage Interviewing Experiment in an RDD Survey.

Daifeng Han, David Cantor, Pat D. Brick, and Maribel Aponte. Findings From a Two-Phase Mail Survey for a Study of Veterans.

Graham Kalton. Developing Linkage Rules to Reduce Noncoverage.

Kerry Levin, Jocelyn Newsome, Martha Stapleton, Salma Shariff-Marco, Nancy Breen, and Gordon Willis. Assessing Asian-Language Translated Questions About Self-Reported Racial/Ethnic Discrimination in a Health Survey.

Karen Masken, George Contos, Roy Nord, and J. Michael Brick. Response Mode and Bias Analysis in the IRS' Individual Taxpayer Burden Survey.

Brett McBride and David Cantor. Factors in Skip Errors and Omissions on a Self-Administered Paper Questionnaire.

Jill M. Montaquila, J. Michael Brick, Mary C. Hagedorn, and Douglas Williams. Maximizing Response in a Two-Phase Survey With Mail as the Primary Mode.

Jennifer E. O�Brien, Tom Krenzke, David Ferraro, Howard King, Michele Harmon, Jocelyn Newsome, Kerry Levin, and Martin Rater. Favorable Results From a Low Effort Follow-Up: An Investigation of Nonresponse Bias in a Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Sid J. Schneider, Barbara Gustavson, Tiandong Li, Huseyin Goksel, Ralph DiGaetano, and W. Sherman Edwards. Respondents� Methods for Recalling Data in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

Charlotte Tubman and Douglas Williams. The Effectiveness of Incentives Used in the Second Phase of a Two-Phase Survey.

Douglas Williams, Jill M. Montaquila, J. Michael Brick, and Mary C. Hagedorn. Screening for Specific Population Groups in Mail Surveys.

Andrew Zukerberg and Daifeng Han. �Habla Espa�ol? Impact of Offering a Bilingual Option in a Mail Survey of Linguistically Isolated Areas.

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05/03/2010

Wounded Military Personnel to Be Surveyed by Westat

The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) has contracted Westat to conduct a web survey of its alumni. The goal of the survey is to assess current health status, functioning, and well-being of veterans and current service members who have sustained service-connected injuries and illnesses since September 11, 2001.

To date, more than 39,000 military personnel have been wounded or killed in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, other studies estimate that over 300,000 suffer from invisible wounds such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression.

"Our work in this area is a natural extension of the many years of supporting the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs," noted Westat Senior Study Director Wayne Hintze, project director of the study. "We look forward to supporting the research of wounded warriors for years to come so we might help improve their care and recovery."

Westat will collect the web survey data, analyze results, and present findings to WWP in a final report. The long-range plan is to conduct the survey annually, which would enable tracking of these outcomes over time.

WWP, a nonprofit organization, endeavors to improve the lives of severely injured service members through the following efforts:

  • Increase public awareness about this population�s needs;
  • Bring about legislative and policy changes to address those needs; and
  • Augment the services available to them through the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, and other agencies.

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04/26/2010

Educational Research Meeting Attracts Broad Range of Westat Researchers as Participants

Westat researchers will be serving as presenters at this year's American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting [*]. The theme for this year�s meeting is Understanding Complex Ecologies in a Changing World. The meeting will be held in Denver, Colorado, April 30-May 4, 2010.

AERA is the most prominent international professional organization advancing the dual goals of educational research and its practical application. The annual meeting convenes more than 14,000 educational researchers from the United States and abroad.

Reflecting our organization's broad range of research activity, Westat attendees will be presenting the results of studies on a variety of topics, including high school dropout rates, school vouchers, reading curricula, special education, educational technology, teacher pay-for-performance, student course enrollment patterns, and others. The following is a list of Westat staff presenting this year's conference.

Joseph Gasper. Timing and Turbulence: A New Look at Mobility and Dropout.

Babette Gutmann. The District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts after 3 Years.

Jennifer A. Hamilton. Striving Readers: Results from Newark, New Jersey.

Frank F. Jenkins, Brad Keller, and Elaine Carlson. Patterns of Reading and Math Growth among Young Children with Disabilities.

Frank F. Jenkins. Measuring Problem Solving with Technology: A Demonstration Study for NAEP.

Keith MacAllum, John Wells, and Xiaodong Zhang. Evaluation of Ohio�s Teacher Incentive Fund.

Robert Colby Perkins and Stephen E. Roey. Algebra I: The Moving Target in Course-Taking Trends.

Robert Colby Perkins and Stephen E. Roey. Utilizing Electronic Files and Transcripts to Enhance the NAEP High School Transcript Study.

Stephen E. Roey. The Breadth and Depth of High School Algebra I Courses: Examining Differences in Course Content.

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04/21/2010

Dr. Simani Price, Jennifer Berktold to Contribute to Seminar on Health Communication in the New Millennium

The work of Westat Senior Study Directors Dr. Simani Price and Jennifer Berktold will be presented at the final seminar of the 2010 Contemporary Social Issues Seminar Series. The series is sponsored by the Rockville Institute and the Universities at Shady Grove.

This month�s seminar is titled Health Communication in the New Millennium: Getting Health Information to a Population Through New Media. It will be held on Thursday, April 29, 2010, at 4:00 p.m. Each seminar, which is free and open to the public, is held in the Camille Kendall Academic Center [*], Building III, Room 3241, 9636 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, Maryland, 20850.

The presentation will provide an overview of the changing media landscape and its implications for health messaging. The application of new media to improve patient provider communications, reach at risk youth, disseminate risk communication messages, and encourage lifestyle changes will be discussed. Recent examples include:

  • Smoking cessation and weight loss interventions administered via cell phones,
  • HIV and youth dating violence prevention social media campaigns aimed at high risk populations,
  • Computer games designed to improve adolescent health,
  • A FDA/CDC peanut recall blog.

Perspectives from disseminators and consumers of health information will be provided through a series of short video clips from interviews conducted with social media experts at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an American University communication professor, and members of the general public.

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04/14/2010

Clinical Research Professionals Meeting Includes Westat Staff

Westat staff will be participating in this year�s Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) Global Conference and Exhibition [*]. The meeting will be held in Tampa, Florida, April 23-27, 2010. More than 2,500 clinical research professionals from pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, hospital, academic medical center, and physician practice settings are expected to attend.

Westat will be exhibiting at Booth 434 in the exhibit hall. Westat project staff Karen Stewart and Marsha Johnson will be available to provide meeting attendees an opportunity to learn about our projects and capabilities.

Ms. Johnson will be presenting a poster at the conference: Regulatory and GCP Compliance in an International Setting. The poster represents the challenges and solutions to conducting clinical trials in an international setting.

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04/12/2010

Seminar on Health Care Innovations and the AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange Set for April 22, 2010

Health Care Innovations is the topic of the third in a series of seminars of the 2010 Contemporary Social Issues Seminar Series, which is sponsored by the Rockville Institute and the Universities at Shady Grove.

This seminar will be held Thursday, April 22, 2010,* at 4:00 p.m. in the Camille Kendall Academic Center [*], Building III, Room 3241, 9636 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, Maryland, 20850. Each seminar is free and open to the public.

After Dr. Veronica Nieva, a Westat Vice President and Associate Director, introduces the topic of service delivery innovations in health care, Judi Consalvo of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will provide the agency�s perspective on the goals for the Innovations Exchange. Dr. Nieva will then also demonstrate the Innovations Exchange web site (www.innovations.ahrq.gov) [*] and discuss how the term "innovations" is defined, how each innovation is presented, and how the public can use the site. Dr. Judith Rogers, Chief Nurse Executive and Vice President of Patient Care Services at Holy Cross Hospital, will share information about a special emergency unit especially designed for elderly patients.

The final seminar topic that will be covered this spring is as follows:

*This seminar was originally scheduled for Thursday, February 11, 2010. Due to inclement weather, the seminar was rescheduled to this date.

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04/08/2010

Westat Staff to Participate at SAS Global Forum 2010

On April 11-14, Westat staff will participate in the SAS Global Forum 2010 [*] at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington.

Westat staff member Michael Raithel will be presenting two invited papers at the conference. Jennifer Fulton will present a contributed paper as well.

Mr. Raithel is also featured as a lunchtime keynote speaker on Tuesday, April 13, with his light-hearted look at how It's Not Easy Being a SAS Programmer. Duke Owen, Conference Executive Board member, and Rick Mitchell, Conference Section Chair, will serve organizational roles at the conference.

The list of papers to be presented by Westat staff and coauthors follows (Westat staff names in bold):

Jennifer K. Fulton. Dealing with Lab Data — Stacking the Deck in Your Favor.

Michael Raithel. PROC DATASETS: The Swiss Army Knife of SAS® Procedures.

Michael Raithel. Supporting SAS® Software in a Research Organization.

Arthur Tabachneck, Randy Herbison, Andrew Clapson, John King, Roger DeAngelis, and Tom Abernathy. Automagically Copying and Pasting Variable Names.

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04/01/2010

Dr. Andrea Sedlak Publishes Article on Youth in Custody Survey

Dr. Andrea Sedlak, Westat Vice President and an Associate Director, published an article in the December 2009 issue of Corrections Today on the findings for the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement (SYRP) [*]. The survey, for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Department of Justice, offers a unique perspective on youth in custody. It is the first national survey to gather data directly from youth in juvenile justice placement.

More than 7,000 offenders between the ages of 10 and 20 in more than 200 facilities answered questions on a broad range of subjects. The survey was administered by an audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI). This method ensured anonymity and avoided any difficulties due to poor literacy. Here are a few statistics concerning incarcerated youth:

  • With prior convictions: 85%
  • Have used alcohol or drugs: 88%
  • Under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the offense that led to their current custody: 44%
  • Below the grade level typical for their age: 48%
  • Diagnosed with learning disabilities: more than 7 times the general population rate
  • Had recent suicidal thoughts or feelings: 30%
  • Report prior sexual abuse: 12% (20 times higher than the general population)
  • Under age 18 in units with young adults who are 18 years or older: 43%
  • Likelihood of young adults housed with older individual whose most serious career offense is murder: 42%

Dr. Sedlak summarized the findings with the following recommendations:

  • Improve coverage of mental health services.
  • Target substance abuse counseling and treatment; provide more comprehensive interventions; and use more qualified substance abuse service providers.
  • Obtain systematic information on youths� educational needs and services in placement.
  • Avoid housing juveniles with substantially older youth.
  • Develop programs that address youths� specific circumstances and capitalize on their aspirations to motivate positive changes.

For more information:
Contact Westat
www.syrp.org [*]

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03/30/2010

NIAID Selects Westat to Support the Development of a Research Network in Mexico

Westat has been chosen by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) to provide administrative, technical, and management support for the development of an infectious disease network in Mexico. The H1N1 influenza virus (Swine Flu) will be the first disease of interest.

The network will be a joint collaboration between the Mexican and U.S. governments and will conduct time-sensitive infectious disease research. This collaboration will also work to develop a robust independent research capacity in Mexico.

Westat staff will provide a variety of support services:

  • Provide administrative, technical, and managerial support to network investigators; and
  • Identify and manage subcontractor(s) to assist with:
    • Hiring study coordinators, data managers, and information technology staff in Mexico City; and
    • Supplying essential equipment to the network sites.

Westat will work with this Mexican-U.S. research collaboration to:

  • Develop and implement an influenza/influenza-like respiratory syndrome natural history study;
  • Assess and continuously identify opportunities to improve the existing clinical research infrastructure of the network clinical research sites in Mexico; and
  • Explore ways to enhance research expertise through training and capacity building.

For more information:
Contact Westat Clinical Trials

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03/23/10

Dr. Donna Durant Atkinson, Brenda Leath to Participate in Seminar on Health Disparities

Dr. Donna Durant Atkinson, a Westat Senior Study Director; Brenda Leath, a Westat Senior Study Director; and Dr. Marilyn Lynk of the Center on Health Disparities at Adventist HealthCare will speak at the second in a series of seminars for the 2010 Contemporary Social Issues Seminar Series. The series is sponsored by the Rockville Institute and the Universities at Shady Grove.

This seminar is titled The Health Disparities Solution�Is it Merely Putting Theory into Practice? It will be held on Thursday, April 1, 2010, at 4:00 p.m. Each seminar, which is free and open to the public, is held in the Camille Kendall Academic Center [*], Building III, Room 3241, 9636 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, Maryland, 20850.

The presentation will lay the groundwork by describing what health disparities are and how they are measured. Focus will be on the vulnerable populations who face these disparities and the particular health conditions for which they are most at risk.

Information about what is being done to address the disparities will be shared, and the agencies and organizations that are involved in reducing these disparities will be discussed. This session will also provide information on what key issues are associated with health disparities and how they can be addressed by the health care and broader communities.

The next seminars in the series are as follows:

Innovations in Health Care Delivery
Thursday, April 22, 2010, at 4:00 p.m.

Health Communication in the New Millennium: Getting Health Information to a Population Through New Media
Thursday, April 29, 2010, at 4:00 p.m.

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03/18/10

Head Start Impact Study Final Report Released

The Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) Final Report [*] was released earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The study�s goals were to determine:

  • The impact of Head Start on children�s school readiness and parental practices that support children�s development, and
  • Under what circumstances Head Start achieves its greatest impact and for which children.

Westat and its subcontractors studied the progress of nearly 5,000 3- and 4-year-old children. The children were randomly assigned to either a group with access to Head Start program services, or a control group that did not have access to Head Start but could enroll in other early childhood programs or non-Head Start services selected by their parents.

The general findings are as follows:

  • Head Start had an impact on children�s language and literacy development while enrolled in Head Start.
  • By the end of 1st grade, the Head Start children and the control group children were on the same level on many of the cognitive measures.
  • Head Start children were more likely than control group children to receive dental checkups or care during their Head Start years.
  • Positive findings in the social-emotional and parenting practices domains were focused on the 3-year-olds and concentrated during the Head Start years with some evidence of impact during the school years.

Westat was awarded a contract to collect data during the children�s 3rd grade year. We are currently in the process of analyzing these data.

For more information:
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03/16/10

Vasudha Narayanan Presented Findings from the Skills Gap Survey in Mumbai

Vasudha Narayanan, a Westat Senior Study Director, presented a report at the 1st Annual Convention of the Higher Education Forum (HEF) on March 6, 2010, in Mumbai, India. More than 200 attendees participated. They represented stakeholders from both the academic and corporate worlds who are associated with higher education in India.

Ms. Narayanan provided an overview of the findings from the Skills Gap Survey. The survey was designed to address the question of whether new MBA graduates of India's institutes and universities meet the expectations of their first employers. HEF initiated the survey; Westat and 1SOS, a Mumbai-based market research firm, cosponsored the study.

The project used a combination of a web-based survey and individual, semi-structured interviews to examine this and related questions among Human Resources and senior executives from 74 organizations in the Indian banking, financial services, and insurance sector.

The survey found that industry has the highest expectations for newly hired MBAs in the area of attitudes, followed by skills, and finally by knowledge. The consensus view, as shared by one respondent, was clear: "We hire people for attitude and train them for the skills."

The Skills Gap Survey found the following areas were most important to industry:

  • Industry expects new MBAs to come to the corporate world with the proper attitude.
  • MBAs must be committed, dedicated, self-disciplined, self-motivated, and show an aptitude and willingness to learn.
  • MBAs must possess strong analytic, listening, and communication skills, and they must be able to work in a team and collaborate.
  • Finally, MBAs must come in with at least a basic knowledge of the organization and processes within the organization, and an understanding of products, solutions, and services - including those of competitors - as well as consumer behavior.

For more information:
Contact Westat
skillsgapsurvey@westat.in

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02/26/10

Dr. Roline Milfort to Participate in Seminar on Employment Barriers for People with Mental Illness

Dr. Roline Milfort, a Westat Senior Study Director and Director of Operations for the Mental Health Treatment Study (MHTS), and Shree Paralkar of St. Luke�s House, one of the 22 MHTS demonstration sites, will speak at the first in a series of seminars for the 2010 Contemporary Social Issues Seminar Series. The series is sponsored by the Rockville Institute and the Universities at Shady Grove.

This seminar is titled Barriers to Employment for People with Mental Illness. It will be held on Thursday, March 4, 2010, at 4:00 p.m. Each seminar, which is free and open to the public, is held in the Camille Kendall Academic Center [*], Building III, Room 3241, 9636 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, Maryland, 20850.

The presentation will:

  • Provide a brief overview of the Mental Health Treatment Study (MHTS) and the study participants.
  • Provide a brief summary of the community resources available in Montgomery County, Maryland, for persons with psychiatric disabilities.
  • Discuss barriers at the recruitment level and reasons for refusal to participate.
  • Discuss barriers to employment success among participants receiving the MHTS intervention.
  • Discuss success stories that exemplify how some of the barriers can be overcome and the lessons learned throughout the process.
  • Discuss implications for mental health providers, employers, researchers, and family members.

Other seminar topics that will be covered this spring include the following:

The Health Disparities Solution � Is It Merely Putting Theory into Practice?
Thursday, April 1, 2010, at 4:00 p.m.

Innovations in Health Care Delivery
Thursday, April 22, 2010, at 4:00 p.m.

Health Communication in the New Millennium: Getting Health Information to a Population Through New Media
Thursday, April 29, 2010, at 4:00 p.m.

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02/18/10

Babette Gutmann to Participate in Education Reform Lecture Series

On February 26, 2010, Westat Vice President Babette Gutmann will be giving a lecture as part of the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform Lecture Series [*]. The spring semester series will include other leading education researchers from across the Nation, including Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and Swarthmore. Speakers will discuss practical issues of importance to improving education.

Ms. Gutmann's lecture is titled Design and Results from an Intervention Study of Preschool and Parenting Curricula Using an RCT (Randomized Control Trial). It will provide a description of the impacts of the Even Start Classroom Literacy Intervention and Outcomes (CLIO) study on eligible preschoolers and their parents. CLIO introduced research-based, literacy-focused curricula in participating Even Start projects. The lecture will also describe challenges in the design and implementation of the CLIO study.

Other lectures in the series will be covering a variety of topics. Attendees will learn about how to improve student attendance, how to design merit pay systems, when it is best to hold school elections, and the appropriate role for courts in determining school spending levels, among other topics.

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01/11/10

Health Care Knowledge Transfer and Implementation Activities Conducted by Westat

Westat will conduct knowledge transfer and implementation activities for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ's) Office of Communications and Knowledge Transfer. This project will enable target audiences to put AHRQ's products, tools, and research into practice.

As the first task under this multiyear contract, AHRQ has asked Westat to promote state implementation of MONAHRQ. MONAHRQ is a free software application for analyzing hospital administrative data and creating web sites for reporting hospital performance measures and other information for public use.

Westat will conduct state outreach activities and a learning network as part of its knowledge transfer/implementation efforts.

For more information:
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