1. Investigators with impending deadlines (e.g., conference presentation, abstract submission) must give sufficient time to collaborate with BCL personnel. This means that collaborations with the BCL should start several weeks to months prior to the deadline(s). BCL personnel will work with investigators to meet responsibly acknowledged deadlines. However, projects with deadlines that the BCL supervisor feels are unreasonable may be denied.
2. The BCL will NOT assist in any coursework (e.g. homework, class projects) or contribute towards the completion of any degree. This includes, but is but not limited to, Capstone projects, theses and dissertations.
3. Where applicable, Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) must be obtained prior to any collaborations with BCL personnel. IRB approval must be obtained for human subject research or research on decedents.
4. All datasets provided to members of the BCL cannot contain identifiable patient information. These data sets must be stripped of any protected health information (PHI), including MRNs or dates of medical procedures. Data provided to members of the BCL will be stored on systems maintained by the School of Medicine IT team.
5. Data fidelity is the responsibility of the investigator. The BCL supervisor may request that investigators perform data management tasks if the data is not formatted in a manner that minimizes data management or threatens the reproducibility of planned analyses. In support of this, we recommend that:
   1. Data should be collected and stored in REDCap, offered free of charge to members of VCU or VCUHS.
   2. Data stored in other formats (ex. MS Excel, SPSS) should have an accompanying data dictionary. This data dictionary should include:
      1. Variable Names
      2. Variable description
      3. Units (for continuous variables) or Levels (for categorical variables)
      4. Missing variable codes (if applicable)
      5. Other information to clarify variable measurement

6. Authorship will be provided to the BCL representative(s) who make a significant contribution to works submitted as a manuscript or conference abstract/presentation as defined by the ICMJE Authorship guidelines.
7. The PI, or their representative, must be willing to meet for an initial meeting. Follow-up meetings to discuss the results are strongly encouraged.  All meetings must occur during normal business hours unless approved by the BCL Supervisor.
   1. A student who submits a research request must have a mentor for the research project who accompanies the student to the initial meeting.
8. A written report consisting of methods used and a summary of the results will be provided to the investigator.
9. All research activities will be led by graduate students under the mentorship of senior graduate students and Biostatistics faculty. Any project that has obtained or is seeking internal or external research funds will be redirected to a faculty member in the Department of Biostatistics.
10. The BCL supervisor retains the right to deny assistance or deprioritize requests based on certain criteria. These criteria include but are not limited to:
    1. Investigators who violate any part(s) of this policy
    2. Institutional units (Divisions, Departments, Schools, etc.) that house investigators who routinely violate any part(s) of this policy
    3. Investigators who over-utilize BCL resources
    4. Institutional units whose investigators over-utilize BCL resources.

The Department of Biostatistics is committed to providing educational services in biostatistics and data science in support of VCU’s research goals. The services that the BCL provides contribute to this effort. The following policies must be followed for all BCL sponsored educational activities.

1. The BCL will NOT assist in any coursework (e.g. homework, class projects).
2. The BCL will NOT assist in any requests that can be considered tutoring for individuals or small groups.
3. All education activities will be led by graduate students under the mentorship of senior graduate students and Department of Biostatistics faculty.
4. The BCL supervisor retains the right to deny assistance or deprioritize requests based on certain criteria. These criteria include but are not limited to:
   1. Investigators who violate any part(s) of this policy
   2. Institutional units (Divisions, Departments, Schools, etc.) that house investigators who routinely violate any part(s) of this policy
   3. Investigators who over-utilize BCL resources
   4. Institutional units whose investigators over-utilize BCL resources.

2023

Wang C., Sabo R.T.. Bayes DIP: Bayesian Decreasingly Informative Priors for Early Termination Phase II Trials. R package version 0.1.1 (2023). https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/BayesDIP/index.html

Monnat, S., Wheeler, D.C., Wiemers, E. Sun, Y., Sun, X., Wolf, D., Montez, J.. (2023). U.S. States’ COVID-19 Physical Distancing Policies and Working-Age Adult Mental Health Outcomes. Preventive Medicine Reports. 35. 102370. 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102370. 

2022

Henry C., Cockburn C., Simpson M.H., Budd S., Wang C., Dinov D. The baseline risk of multiple febrile seizures in the same febrile illness: a meta-analysis. European Journal of Pediatrics 181, 2201–2213 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-022-04431-w

Chahin, N., Yitayew, M., Richards, A., Forsthoffer, B., Xu, J., Hendricks-Muñoz, K. (2022). Ascorbic Acid and the Premature Infant. Nutrients. 14. 10.3390/nu14112189. 

2021

Vaghjiani, N., Lal, V., Vahidi, N., Ebadi, A., Carli, M., Sima, A., Coelho, D.,. (2021). Social Media and Academic Impact: Do Early Tweets Correlate With Future Citations?. Ear, Nose & Throat Journal. 014556132110421. 10.1177/01455613211042113. 

Wheeler, D.C., Rustom, S., Carli, M., Whitehead, T., Ward, M., Metayer, C. (2021). Bayesian Group Index Regression for Modeling Chemical Mixtures and Cancer Risk. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 18. 3486. 10.3390/ijerph18073486. 

2020

Glass Clark, S. M., Huang, Q., Sima, A. P., & Siff, L. N. (2020). Effect of Surgery for Stress Incontinence on Female Sexual Function. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 1. https://doi.org/10.1097/aog.0000000000003648

Coelho, D. H., Fasulo, B., Quinn, K., Tang, Y., Sima, A., & Forsthoffer, B. (2020). Is the Height of the Arcuate Eminence Related to Body Mass Index? Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, 019459981990034. https://doi.org/10.1177/0194599819900342

Pal, N., Stansfield, J., Mukhopadhyay, N., & Nelson, M. (2020). Marginal Improvement in Survival Post-Heart Transplantation in Patients With Prior Left Ventricular Assist Device: A Temporal Analysis of United Network of Organ Sharing Registry. Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia, 34(2), 392–400. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.jvca.2019.10.003

2019

Shah, B. A., Staschen, J., Pham, N., & Johns, A. (2019). Communicating Mammography Results: By What Method and How Quickly Do Women Want Their Screening Mammogram Results? Journal of the American College of Radiology, 16(7), 928–935. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2018.12.006

Carr, M. T., Hochheimer, C. J., Rock, A. K., Dincer, A., Ravindra, L., Zhang, F. L., Opalak, C. F., Poulos, N., Sima, A. P., & Broaddus, W. C. (2019). Comorbid Medical Conditions as Predictors of Overall Survival in Glioblastoma Patients. Scientific Reports, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56574-w

Chawla, A. T., Chougoni, K. K., Joshi, P. J., Cororaton, A. D., Memari, P., Stansfield, J. C., Park, H., Seth, R., Szomju, B., Sima, A. P., Idowu, M. O., Ellis, K. C., & Grossman, S. R. (2019). CtBP—a targetable dependency for tumor-initiating cell activity and metastasis in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Oncogenesis, 8(10). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41389-019-0163-x

Oswalt, A., Joseph, A. C., Sima, A., & Kurczewski, L. (2019). Evaluation of Intravenous Vancomycin Pharmacokinetic Parameters in Patients With Acute Brain Injury. Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 32(2), 132–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/0897190017743133

Jensen, M., Barmaan, B., Orndahl, C. M., & Louka, A. (2019). Impact of Suction-Assisted Laryngoscopy and Airway Decontamination Technique on Intubation Quality Metrics in a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service: An Educational Intervention. Air Medical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amj.2019.10.005

Patel, S. S., Rodriguez, V. A., Siddiqui, M. B., Faridnia, M., Lin, F. P., Chandrakumaran, A., Laurenzano, J., Clinton, J., Kowlgi, G. N., Kirkman, D., Sima, A. P., Liptrap, E., Bhati, C., & Siddiqui, M. S. (2019). The Impact of Coronary Artery Disease and Statins on Survival After Liver Transplantation. Liver Transplantation, 25(10), 1514–1523. https://doi.org/10.1002/lt.25613

Patel, S. S., Lin, F. P., Rodriguez, V. A., Bhati, C., John, B. V., Pence, T., Siddiqui, M. B., Sima, A. P., Abbate, A., Reichman, T., & Siddiqui, M. S. (2019). The relationship between coronary artery disease and cardiovascular events early after liver transplantation. Liver International, 39(7), 1363–1371. https://doi.org/10.1111/liv.14092

Frankenhoff, J., Stromberg, J., Riley, A., He, J., Madesh, P., & Isaacs, J. (2019). Trapeziometacarpal joint arthritis: A retrospective study of the natural history of symptomatic thumb arthritis. Case Studies in Surgery, 5(2), 11. https://doi.org/10.5430/css.v5n2p11

2018

O’Connell, R. S., Clinger, B. N., Donahue, E. E., Celi, F. S., & Golladay, G. J. (2018). Dexamethasone and postoperative hyperglycemia in diabetics undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty: a case control study in 238 patients. Patient Safety in Surgery, 12(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13037-018-0178-9

Means, K., Gentry, A., & Nguyen, T. (2018). Intravenous Continuous Infusion vs. Oral Immediate-release Diltiazem for Acute Heart Rate Control. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 19(2), 417–422. https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2017.10.33832

Solomon, S. S., Kothari, S., Smallfield, G. B., Inamdar, S., Stein, P., Rodriguez, V. A., Sima, A. P., Bittner, K., Zfass, A. M., Kaul, V., & Trindade, A. J. (2018). Liquid Nitrogen Spray Cryotherapy is Associated With Less Postprocedural Pain Than Radiofrequency Ablation in Barrett’s Esophagus. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 1. https://doi.org/10.1097/MCG.0000000000000999

Colello, R. J., Colello, I. A., Abdelhameid, D., Cresswell, K. G., Merchant, R., & Beckett, E. (2018). Making Football Safer: Assessing the Current National Football League Policy on the Type of Helmets Allowed on the Playing Field. Journal of Neurotrauma, 35(11), 1213–1223. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2017.5446

Nelson, M., Green, J., Spiess, B., Kasirajan, V., Nicolato, P., Liu, H., & Meshkin, R. S. (2018). Measurement of Blood Loss in Cardiac Surgery: Still Too Much. Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 105(4), 1176–1181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2017.11.023

2017