Tufts University : CTSI : Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Seminars & Workshops

Seminar & Workshop Descriptions

To view course descriptions by topic area, please click on the links below:

Bioinformatics
Developing and Managing Your Research Career
Grant Writing
Mixed Methods
Quality Improvement
Regulatory Affairs
Research Design and Data Analysis

To find out when seminars and workshops are offered, please visit our calendar.

To view our online course offerings, please visit I LEARN.

Bioinformatics Seminars
Beginning in 2013, Tufts CTSI's monthly bioinformatics seminars focus on electronic data capture for research studies and are presented by John Putzke, PhD, MSPH, co-founded of ScienceTRAX.

Electronic Data Capture: REDCap or StudyTRAX?
Designed for researchers considering web-based data capture for their studies, this seminar provides an overview of two leading applications and provides common reasons, factors and issues related to choosing between them. By the end of the session, participants are able to:

Compare and distinguish functionality between REDCap and StudyTRAX
Describe the key factors, reasons and issues related to choosing between them
Analyze which application best fits various research projects and investigator interests.

Using StudyTRAX for Clinical Trials
This seminar demonstrates how StudyTRAX can help streamline clinical trials, including setting up and running the study; reporting; data analysis; and publication of results. By the end of the session, participants are able to:

Describe the main features of StudyTRAX associated with patient registries
Identify unique characteristics of StudyTRAX to help facilitate efficient clinical trial management
Examine ways to streamline data analysis, safety reporting, and maximize subject retention.

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Developing and Managing Your Research Career Seminars
Co-sponsored by the Tufts University-wide Committee for Teaching and Faculty Development, Tufts CTSI offers monthly professional development seminars to assist new and seasoned investigators with building collaborative research careers.

The Team Science Balancing Act: Independent Research vs. Collaborations
Karen M. Freund, MD, MPH, Tufts CTSI Associate Director for Research Collaboration, discusses methods for building an independent and collaborative research career, right from the start. By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

Define team science
Understand how to develop/ participate in a successful team science venture
Develop skills to determine whether the next team science opportunity is right
for you.

Defining the Mentoring Relationship
A moderated discussion between mentors and their scholars about their mentor/scholar relationships and their experiences as mentoring teams. By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

Explain the roles of a successful mentoring team
Describe the expectations of the scholar and the mentor
List the characteristics of a successful mentor and scholar
Identify tools that will assist junior faculty who are new to mentoring.

Translational Research: It's About Time
This seminar, presented by Harry P. Selker, MD, MPH addresses:

What is meant by translational science, including the need for collaboration and networking
How to face the challenges that arise in a life of research, especially managing multiple competing demands when working in team science.

Dr. Selker is Dean and Principal Investigator of Tufts CTSI; Professor of Medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine; and Executive Director for the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center, where he is also Chief of the Division of Clinical Care Research in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Health Services Research.

What Editors Look For in a Manuscript
This session is designed for researchers who want to know how to get their studies published and is presented by two experts from the American Journal of Kidney Diseases:

Andrew S. Levey, MD, Editor-in-Chief
Nijsje Dorman, PhD, Managing Editor

Participants learn tips for successful manuscript submission, best practices for reporting clinical studies, and criteria for clinical journals when considering original research articles.

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Grant Writing Workshops
Investigators in the process of writing a grant proposal should not miss Tufts CTSI’s writing workshops. With small class sizes and targeted discussions, these workshops teach participants how to attract reviewers to the significance, innovation, and approach of their studies, right from the very first page.

Developing Your Specific Aims: a Writing Workshop for Researchers
This five-session workshop series focuses on the critically important Specific Aims section of grant proposals. If you have a Specific Aims section already written and you are planning to submit a grant proposal within the next six months, you are encouraged to register for this workshop series.

Investigators in the process of writing a grant proposal should not miss Tufts CTSI’s writing workshops. With small class sizes and targeted discussions, these workshops teach participants how to attract reviewers to the significance, innovation, and approach of their studies, right from the very first page. This five-session workshop series focuses on the critically important Specific Aims section of grant proposals. If you have a Specific Aims section already written and you are planning to submit a grant proposal within the next six months, you are encouraged to register for this workshop series.

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Mixed Methods Seminars
These monthly seminars focus on the relationship between qualitative and quantitative research methods, and are presented by Justeen Hyde, PhD, Adjunct Instructor, Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; Senior Scientist, Institute for Community Health; and Instructor, Harvard Medical School and Tom Mackie, MA, MPH, Research Consultant, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center.

Mixed Method Approaches for Clinical and Basic Research
This introductory session provides an overview of qualitative research methods used in clinical and basic science. Participants learn the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, how to critically assess insights derived from qualitative methods, which kinds of research questions are best suited for qualitative methods, and more.

The Qualitative Research Process: Study Designs for Health Services Research
Many health services researchers are interested in conducting qualitative research, but don't know where to begin. This session teaches participants:

How to develop qualitative research questions and core components of study design
Specific qualitative methods employed in health services research including interviews, focus groups, and participant observation
Strengths and challenges in applying qualitative methods to health-related research questions.

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Quality Improvement Seminars
Tufts CTSI's Quality Improvement (QI) Seminars series help researchers to apply QI methods to their work.

Deconstructing Quality Improvement and Applying it to Research
What are the current trends, methods, tools and resources in Quality Improvement (QI), and how can you use them to make your research more efficient?

Leaders in business, health care and research have found that implementing the Model for Improvement results in better outcomes and greater returns-on-investment. Find out how to apply these QI methods to your work at the first seminar in our Quality Improvement series, Deconstructing Quality Improvement and Applying it to Research.

The seminar is led by two experts in QI and mixed methods:

Laurel Leslie, MD, MPH, Director of the Community Engagement at Tufts CTSI and Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tufts Medical Center and Floating Hospital for Children
Denise Daudelin, RN, MPH, Associate Director of Community Engagement at Tufts CTSI and Assistant Professor, Tufts Medical School, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts Medical Center.

Using QI Tools to Improve Research Processes
Professors Leslie and Daudelin return to examine specific QI tools and their application to research. Participants in this session learn:

The core principles of Quality Improvement, including focusing on the customer and the collection and use of data
Common QI tools to improve the research process
How QI tools can improve experimental results, subject recruitment, and data collection and data entry.

Your QI Toolbox
In this session, Professors Leslie and Daudelin continue their review of QI tools, and teach participants how these tools can:

Improve their current process in clinical research with human subjects
Be applied to demonstrate improvements in research processes using run charts and statistical process control charts.

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Regulatory Affairs Seminars
With engaging and expert guest speakers, Tufts CTSI’s Regulatory Seminars series cover important topics such as intellectual property and informed consent.

Intellectual Property Issues Related to Tissue Engineering
Learn about research-related intellectual property issues from Tufts University and Northeastern University:

Stephen F. Amato, PhD, MBA, RAC, Head of Faculty, Global Regulatory Affairs, Northeastern University, focuses on the biomedical lifecycle, filing combo products, and how intellectual property becomes an essential piece in this process.
Martin Son, CLP, from Tufts University Office for Technology Licensing and Industry Collaboration discusses general background and overview of IP and early stage disclosures at research institutions. He has experience with many technologies, and in the tissue engineering space he works mostly to protect and commercialize novel biomaterial platforms.
Jonathan Garlick, DDS, PhD, Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, School of Dental Medicine, Tufts University, speaks about his experience as a stem cell researcher and addresses ethical issues that touch on translational aspects of emerging technologies in the life sciences and tissue engineering. Dr. Garlick has extensive experience developing human tissue engineering technologies for regenerative therapies and as product development and drug discovery platforms.

To read an article about this seminar, click here.

Informed Consent Issues Surrounding Genomic Data
Regulations and related ethical concerns are explained by experts from Tufts University Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and the Northeastern University Regulatory Affairs Program:

Gordon Huggins, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Tufts University Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and Tufts Health Sciences Campus Institutional Review Board Vice-Chair, performs human candidate gene and genome-wide association studies for the purpose of investigating genetic and biological mechanisms of heart and cardiovascular disease.
Michele Russell-Einhorn, JD, Senior Director of the Office for Human Research Studies at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and faculty in the Northeastern University Regulatory Affairs Program, has more than 30 years of expertise in the field of the protection of human subjects in research.
Sara Harnish, JD, Assistant Director of Non-Clinical Research, Office for Human Research Studies at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and faculty in the Northeastern University Regulatory Affairs Program, is responsible for scientific review and institutional review board review of all non-clinical research involving human subjects. She has practiced law in Massachusetts for 26 years.

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Research Design and Data Analysis Seminars and Workshops
How many subjects do I need for my study? What’s a P-value? How do I handle missing data? These are just some of the questions our statistical, epidemiological, and research-oriented seminars and workshops answer for Tufts researchers. Learn how to build a successful research career from very experienced Tufts CTSI instructors from the Research Design Center/Biostatistics Research Center (RDC/BRC).

Introduction to Study Design
This highly interactive seminar presents the key steps in study design including how to decide which design is appropriate for your research question, and the strengths and challenges for the most common types of study designs. You leave this seminar with a practical understanding of why study design is critical in the interpretation of your study findings. The seminar is structured as a didactic session with participant discussion of case-based examples from the medical literature.