InCHOIR
International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research
 

INSTITUTIONAL CAPABILITIES

Clinical trials center

Informatics Group

Large health-dataset analytical unit

Cost-effectiveness analytical unit

Health policy analytical unit

Governance and Management Structure

 
 
 

INSTITUTIONAL CAPABILITIES

Clinical trials center

InCHOIR has built the infrastructure to design, coordinate, and analyze multi-center randomized clinical trials. Its special expertise includes surgical and high-risk medical device trials. The Center has the following strengths in its approach to conducting clinical trials:

  • Close connection to the clinical specialties at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who participate in the design of clinical protocols in a collaborative effort;
  • Experience with FDA-regulated trials;
  • Sophisticated data management, with innovative, proprietary on-line data entry systems
  • Experienced clinically oriented project leadership, coordination, and monitoring;
  • Renowned statistical expertise and strong focus on economic and quality of life endpoints;
  • Collaboration with the Columbia University Office of Clinical Trials for contractual arrangements in multi-center clinical trials, both government and industry-sponsored.

Large health-dataset analytical unit

In the past decade, there has been an extraordinary growth in access to publicly available large health data sets. When studied, these secondary datasets provide a unique window for identification of clinical research priorities, variations in practice patterns, and the impact of policies made by local, state and federal agencies. The Sociomedical Sciences National Health Data Library under the direction of Dr. Ray Arons contains 750 million patient records. The Library is growing at a rapid pace as more data come on-line and are made available. Current sources and types of these data include:

  • Inpatient and ambulatory surgery data from State agencies;
  • Ten surveys from the National Center of Health Statistics (NCHS) such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES III), The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, the Multiple Cause of Death survey, and The Longitudinal Study on Aging;
  • The Health Care Financing Administration’s Medicare MEDPAR files;
  • The National Cancer Institute’s SEER/HCFA combined cancer registry and Medicare costs data; and
  • The NIH National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Top

Cost-effectiveness analytical unit

In collaboration with the Division of Health Policy and Management of the School of Public Health, the Center has developed a strong health economics unit. This unit offers capabilities in cost-effectiveness research and application in the areas of interventional surgical trials and pharmacological clinical studies. The Center will be working with the Office of Clinical Trials to further economic analysis within clinical trials at Columbia University.

Health policy analytical unit

The Center has an interdisciplinary unit examining the policy issues emerging from the clinical research conducted within the Center, and –more generally—looking at the processes of technological innovation in medicine.

GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE

The Center’s management team is responsible for day-to-day governance. An internal advisory board provides strategic guidance. The board is composed of members of the administration and research faculty of both Columbia University’s Health Sciences Campus, Cornell University Weil Medical College, and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. One important development within the Center has been to establish a strong operational collaboration with the NYPH Office of Outcomes Research, under leadership of Dr. Greene.

 

 

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