Population Sciences SIG Meeting Notes

For more recent minutes and information, please visit the PopSci Wiki Page

June 16, 2011 - This meeting focused on providing an update on Program status and features by John Speakman. Rick Moser then followed with an update on the use of Grid Enabled Measures (GEM) with several target comparisons. The meeting concluded with a brief summary of feedback from the recent CTMS/ PopSci joint face-to-face meeting.

April 21, 2011 - This meeting focused on providing updates to the community on the progression of the CTMS/PopSci F2F planning, the BAM-Recruitment & Eligibility Workgroup, and the Curation of Measures Workgroup.

March 17, 2011 - This meeting was cancelled.

February 17, 2011 - Today’s meeting included announcements and a presentation by Morten Ervik who provided an overview and demo on CanReg5.

January 20, 2011 - This meeting time was used for presentations on workgroup report out of work completed to date and future workgroup goals and direction for the SME Input: Disease Workgroup by Michele Ehlman, and for the Curation of Measures Workgroup by Riki Ohira.

December 16, 2010 - The purpose of this meeting was to provide the PopSci community with an overview of the Disease Workgroup. Riki Ohira provided a presentation to the community on the curation of measures.

November 18, 2010 - This meeting time was used primarily for representatives from the ongoing PopSci workgroups to provide updates on their work progress to date. Riki Ohira provided an update for the Curation of Measures workgroup and Jane Bryzozowksi provided an update for the SME Input workgroup. In addition, Richa Gandhi provided an overview of the CRF Harmonization and Standardization process on behalf of the CRF community.

October 21, 2010 - The purpose of this meeting was to provide the PopSci community with an overview of the Knowledge Center and its capabilities. Jenny Tucker provided a presentation to the community.

May 20, 2010 - This meeting provided a venue for multiple PopSci workgroup leads to update the community on the progress of the workgroups. Presentations were made by Umit Topaloglu from the University of Arkansas on “Research data collection employing CDEs”, PopSci GEM workgroup updates were provided by Hua Min, and PopSci BAM workgroup updates were provided by Michelle Ehlman. This meeting also served as a working session to review use cases from the PopSci BAM workgroup.

April 15, 2010 - This meeting session was used for the PopSci workgroup leads to provide project updates. Michele Ehlman and Gene Kraus provided project updates for the Business Architecture Model (BAM) workgroup. Jessica Bondy provided updates for the PopSci Grid Enabled Measures Workgroup. Further discussion on workgroup alignment was held.

March 18, 2010 - Leslie Cooper (NIH/NCI) lead the presentation of the Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR): Community Networks Program. The presentation highlighted the following areas: an introduction of CBPR and CRCHD (Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities), highlights of the Community Network Programs (CNP), an overview of the data tools used for evaluating the current CNP, collection of suggestions to explore opportunities from caBIG for a CBPR module and other CRCHD programs.

February 18, 2010 - The PopSci Workgroups gave a Report Out of the work completed in the last year – PopSci Enterprise Use Case Group (led by Gene Kraus), PopSci Grid Enabled Measures (led by Nancy Avis and Hua Min), and PopSciGrid (led by Jessica Bondy and Mike Collins). Discussion around future activities was made and they included the following topics: PopSci Enterprise Use Cases and Business Architecture Model, GEM Measures for curation into caDSR, and face-to-face meeting agenda.

January 21, 2010 -Paul Courtney gave an update on the DCCPS projects that are related to caBIG®, Grid-Enabled Measures, caSEER and PopSciGrid. The GEM project is currently under beta-testing with a group from CECCRS, caSEER is working through issues of querying data on the Grid, and PopSciGrid is looking at expanding the data sources used for analysis.

January 7, 2010 - Gene Kraus, the PopSci Enterprise Use Case Workgroup Lead presented the work that the group did, and solicited feedback from the community. There were several comments from the community on the value of the work they have completed. Riki Ohira briefly shared input already submitted for the 2010 caBIG® Annual Meeting, and requested additional feedback from the group. The feedback would be from the population science perspective.

December 17, 2009 - John Speakman gave a high level overview of the Outcomes Repository initiative, then Gisele Sarosy, a medical oncologist and Nellie Shimko gave a demonstration of the Outcomes Portal. They demonstrated how to add a new patient and their information, but the focus was to show the type of data that is currently being captured in this system and provide feedback on what changes could be made and additional information that should be captured. There was a comment that the information is focused on clinical trials, but there is an effort to expand this to include general treatment plans in addition to treatment protocols. There was also a suggestion to add Quality of Life information, as well as prognostic data and family history.

December 3, 2009 - Angela Fix went through the Action Items that came out of the Face-to-Face Meeting (November 18-20, 2009 in San Francisco). There were a few minor edits to the notes. The majority of the meeting was spent on discussing approaches for outreach with the larger population science community; having a road show with a standard slide deck and/or poster that community members could present at meetings or even within their own institutions. Lastly, the group provided feedback from this past Face-to-Face Meeting and briefly discussed the next Face-to-Face Meeting.

November 5, 2009 - Cathy Bradley from the Virginia Commonwealth University presented on Disparate Cancer Care discussing the issues they had with secondary use issues and data mining. There was a brief update on the upcoming Face-to-Face and a reminder to please register for the meeting.

October 15, 2009 - The three workgroups in the PopSci SIG gave an update on the progress of their work. The PopSci Use Case Workgroup has finalized their charter and identified a long list of potential use cases to begin reviewing. The next meetings will begin storyboarding the key use cases identified. The Measures workgroup developed a draft of their Charter and have completed the first step, which was to survey the measures in both the Grid-enabled Measures (GEM) database and caDSR. The next step is to identify key measures in GEM that would be useful to curate in the caDSR. Mike Collins from the PopSciGrid Workgroup gave a brief overview of the project and showed the model they have been working on for NHIS. Not only have they modified the original model, but they plan to link it to the model Fox Chase proposed in the White Paper they submitted last year. Angela Fix gave an update on the Fall Face-to-Face Meeting to be hosted by the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in San Francisco November 18-20, 2009. The hotel and agenda are still being confirmed but possible topics include overviews of the PopSci SIG, caBIG® and DCCPS, presentations by UCSF researchers, other local cancer centers, and the Kaiser Oakland group, as well as presentations on the BIG Health Consortium and Molecular Informed Comparative Effectiveness Research (MICER).

October 1, 2009 - Fred Raab from the PACE Research Group, UCSD School of Medicine and the Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems, gave a comprehensive presentation on the “Physical Activity Location Management System (PALMS) Overview” describing the online platform used to support the processing of time stamped data from physical activity monitoring devices and other sensors. Angela Fix gave an update on the Fall Face-to-Face Meeting to be hosted by the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in San Francisco November 18-20, 2009.

September 17, 2009 - Joshua Phillips from Semantic Bits gave a comprehensive presentation on “Ontology-driven Data Integration in caBIG^®” describing the current process used by caBIG^® with metadata (CDEs), basic background on ontologies and semantic web, and the approach and benefits to using ontologies. The Workgroups gave an update on their progress and finally, Angela Fix gave an update on the Fall Face-to-Face Planning. Although we have not confirmed the date and location, we are looking at November 18-20, 2009 in San Francisco.

September 3, 2009 - Paul Courtney introduced the new PopSci SIG Lead, Angela Fix, who gave some background on herself. Lynne Wilkens presented on Multi-Ethnic Cohort studies at the University of Hawaii, the Workgroups gave brief updates on their progress and we discussed Face-to-Face planning for the Fall meeting.

August 13, 2009 - Paul Courtney announced that he was leaving Booz Allen and stepping down as the PopSci SIG Lead, but would remain in the space as a DCCPS representative. The new SIG Lead will be introduced to the SIG in the near future. The group also discussed where to have the Fall Face-to-Face, and had a debrief of the caBIG^® Annual Meeting.

July 2, 2009 - Paul Courtney announced the two PopSci SIG events happening during the Annual Meeting, a dinner on Tuesday, July 21st and a lunch on Wednesday, July 22nd. He reminded the group about the DCCPS presentations at the Annual Meeting. It was announced to begin thinking about availability and possible locations for the Fall Face-to-Face. Lastly, Paul Courtney briefly commented that the PopSci participation contracts are moving along, and that we working on speakers for the August and September General Teleconferences. Mary Cooper made a brief announcement for the PopSci SIG participants to be involved in the Case Report Form Harmonization & Standardization activities.

June 18, 2009 - Paul Courtney gave a debrief of the PopSci Face-to-Face Meeting held June 10 – 12, 2009 at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Brad McDowell from the University of Iowa spoke about their institute’s Population Sciences Research Core. He highlighted the resources available, and the approaches to integrating the different resources for doing population research. Lastly, Paul Courtney spoke the upcoming caBIG^® Annual Meeting and the group discussed PopSci SIG activities and involvement during the meeting.

June 4, 2009 - Paul Courtney reviewed the agenda for the Face-to-Face Meeting (June 10-12, 2009 at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey). Highlighting key themes, and expectations. Paul also gave a brief update on the status of the PopSci activities and contracts. Bruce Riddle from Dartmouth gave a presentation on Cancer Registries giving an overview of registries, discussing the challenges and issues, and the various stories for a new model. Finally, Jessica Bondy commented that Documentation & Training Workspace had asked about where PopSci fits into caBIG^® and if there were key messages to convey for the Newcomer’s Sessions at the Annual Meeting.

May 21, 2009 - Paul Courtney reminded the PopSci SIG Participants to register for the Spring Face-to-Face meeting, June 10 – 12, 2009 at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick. He also commented that we were still working on the Agenda and a solid draft version would be sent to the Listserv soon. Lynn Penberthy from the Virginia Commonwealth University presented on “Automating the Capture and Integration of Cancer Data.” She presented on their cancer center’s current application, ACE that is allowing for automated capture and integration of population data with clinical trials data.

May 7, 2009 - Paul Courtney opened the meeting by introducing Leslie Derr as the new NCI Facilitator for the SIG. Leslie gave a brief introduction of herself. Bryce Reeve, Ethan Basch and Ram Chilukuri presented on the Patient Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE). Bryce and Ethan gave an overview of the project and described the process and results from the project. Ram gave a demonstration of the PRO-CTCAE system. Paul Courtney and Riki Ohira announced the date for the Spring Face-to-Face. It will be held June 10-12, 2009, hosted by the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick. Paul also gave an update on the PopSci activities and announced that Lynn Penberthy from the Virginia Commonwealth University will speak about “Enhancing the clinical relevance of cancer registry data through automation.”

April 16, 2009 - Dave Stinchomb, David Roney and Ben Powers gave a presentation and demonstration of caSEER. caSEER is a web-based application that provides analytic services for multiple data sources, particular surveillance data Paul Courtney gave an update on the PopSci SIG announcing that Leslie Derr is now the NCI Facilitator. Riki Ohira gave a brief update on the Spring Face-to-Face planning activities. The F2F will be hosted by the Cancer Institute of New Jersey either in late May (5/27-29) or mid-June (6/9-12).

April 2, 2009 - Paul Courtney went through the agenda, then Mary Cooper introduced Janice Chilli who will be taking over her metadata curation duties. Paul Mulhern, the Imaging Workspace Lead, presented on the Imaging WS activities and applications. Paul Mulhern also commented on possible touch points with Population Science asking the PopSci SIG to provide feedback on two of the IMG Use Cases that could include Population Sciences, and offered the help of IMG for any PopSci Use Cases that might touch on Imaging. Paul Courtney then briefly discussed the Spring Face-to-Face, commenting that we are in discussions on having it at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey some time between mid-May to mid-June. Finally, Paul Courtney briefly discussed the participant contracts and the activities planned within the SIG.

March 19, 2009 - Daniela Smith gave a presentation on the caBIG^® Enterprise Use Cases describing the purpose, structure and relevance to the PopSci SIG. Riki Ohira gave a brief presentation on the Outcome Measures Case Report Form (CRF) Working Group activity within the CTMS Workspace. Lastly, Paul Courtney went through the usual PopSci SIG business including the participant subcontracts and planning for the Spring Face-to-Face.

March 5, 2009 - Paul Courtney briefly discussed the new subcontracts and Statements of Work (SOWs). He went through the projects lined up for the new year and finally discussed the Spring PopSci Face-to-Face.

February 19, 2009 - Paul Courtney reviewed the activities planned for the next year and asking for those interested to let Paul or Riki Ohira know. Paul also announced the new meeting structure for the PopSci SIG beginning March (Two General Calls/month on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month and cancellation of the CDE/Metadata WG call).

January 22, 2009 - Dr. Gibbons from Johns Hopkins University gave a presentation on Populomics. Rick Moser from DCCPS gave some background on the Grid Enabled Measures (GEMs) Database project and Paul Courtney elaborated on how the PopSci SIG would be collaborating with this project. Gene Kraus gave an update on the Enterprise Use Cases activity, and Riki Ohira gave an update on the CDE/Metadata and UML Modeling Working Groups. Paul Courtney ended the meeting by going through the planned activities for the coming year.

January 15, 2009 - Mike Collins gave a brief update on the CES-D project and Riki Ohira and Paul Courtney gave an update on the UML Modeling Working Group activities, one of which will be to develop a Best Practices document for modeling population surveys. Paul Courtney spent the majority of the meeting going through the planned future activities for PopSci and identifying participants to begin working on these projects.

To view meeting materials from teleconferences prior to 2009, please go to the archives click here.