Services

Scope and Goals of the Shared Resource

The goals of the BMSR are to support cancer control, population science, and clinical research by assisting investigators in the design and/or incorporation of behavioral variables into proposed or ongoing research, supporting the accrual of underserved groups to clinical trials, assisting investigators in the design and/or implementation of an assessment conceptualization and "package" suited to the investigator's aims and hypotheses, and supporting the interpretation of behavioral data for publication. 

Assessment of key constructs and variables is the cornerstone of experimental research. Measurement of human behavior and psychological phenomena requires a delicate balance between external validity (Does the measure capture the phenomena in "real life") and internal validity (For this specific research question, is the measure psychometrically strong). Assessment of population science and cancer control variables is increasingly important to the OSUCCC clinical investigators. Unless a behavioral scientist has joined a research team, expertise of this sort has been unavailable in the OSUCCC. Moreover, it is limited on campus and in the community, and such consultants would have no familiarity with cancer or behavioral research related to cancer. The absence of a shared resource of this type for clinical investigators interested in behavioral variables is analogous to not having a biostatistics unit to design, plan, and conduct data analyses and interpret data in the context of the experimental questions.

Services Overview

The BMSR provides a continuum of services, ranging from planning for and developing research proposals and projects through data collection and the interpretation of behavioral data.  There are four primary services of the BMSR, including:

1. Research Design, Quality of Life & Behavior Measurement

a) Research design consultation/functions in support of project and grant development. This includes identification and/or evaluation of relevant literature searches on topics of relevance to the investigator's specific aims and hypotheses, and assistance in the conceptual interpretation and/or preparation of behavioral data for presentation/publication.

b) Access to a library of existing behavioral measures relevant for cancer research, expert-guided searches for measurement options, evaluation of psychometric properties of existing measures or modified measures to be used as predictor, mediator, or outcome variables.

          2. Cancer Surveillance & Health Behavior Data

a) Population-based data retrieval and interpretation. This includes one-time as well as continuing retrieval activities.

          3. Recruitment & Regulatory Preparation

a) Consultation and/or provision of personnel for the recruitment of participants, including participant identification and accrual, particularly for underserved and minority populations. This may include use of focus group methodology, and monitoring of accrual/data collection with periodic written reports to investigators on attainment of recruitment goals.

          4. Data Collection & Management

a) Services and personnel to conduct surveys and/or psychological and behavioral measures, either in-person or via the telephone, mail, or laptop computer.

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