Newsletters

 

News from the Executive Committee:

The SPER Executive Committee is currently drafting three resolutions to be reviewed by the membership and voted on at the June 2012 business meeting that will take place at the conclusion of the 25th Anniversary Meeting in Minneapolis, MN.

The topics of the three resolutions include:
1.) Conflict of Interest Policy
2.) Whistle Blower Policy
3.) Record Retention Policy.

Look for these resolutions to be emailed to you sometime in April for review and be prepared to vote for them at the June 2012 business meeting.

News from the SPER Treasurer:

With the new SPER website comes a new way to register for membership through the new "Members Only" section. Members who registered in 2011 should have received an email on November 30 which provided a member ID for access to the members only section as well as a temporary password.

If you have not yet registered, membership registration for 2012 is still open. Please contact SPER Treasurer, Danelle Lobdell, at membership@sper.org if you did not receive your member ID or have any questions.

Current Newsletter - Winter 2012
Follow this link to download print version

IN THIS ISSUE:

Call for Abstracts - 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis, Minnesota

25 Years of SPER: A Lifetime of Research through the Life Course

The Society is soliciting contributed posters and talks for the 25th Annual Meeting that will take place from June 25‐27, 2012 in Minneapolis, MN. This year's two and a half day meeting is different from years past! It includes eight plenary sessions led by eminent scientists, intriguing debates confronting the complex issues of reproductive, perinatal and pediatric epidemiology, several round‐table discussions, and endless opportunities to participate in engaging discussions and exchange of ideas. SPER invites investigators to take full advantage of this exciting opportunity by submitting their recent work. Though this is a broad‐based call for abstracts, investigators will be asked to identify the 25th anniversary meeting focus areas in which their work will fit best. The special emphasis areas include: gynecologic disorders, fertility and fecundity, gravid health, pregnancy outcomes, child development and behavior, the Exposome and research methods. These topics are further described in the preliminary program, which can be found by following this link.

Authors do not have to be a member of SPER to submit an abstract, but if the submitted abstract is accepted, the presenter must join SPER in order to present at the meeting. The work may not have been previously published or presented elsewhere at the time of the meeting. Abstracts may be submitted electronically beginning November 1, 2011 by following this link. The deadline for abstract submissions is 5:00 PM PT, February 10, 2012.

Pre-Meeting Workshops Preview

We are pleased to offer two workshops immediately preceding the SPER 25th Anniversary Annual Meeting. When you register for the annual meeting, don't forget to also register for a workshop!

Advanced Methods Workshop

  • Instrumental Variables: Maria Glymour (Harvard University)
  • "Absolute Epidemiology: Developing Software Skills for Estimation of Absolute Contrasts from Regression Models in Perinatal Epidemiology": Jay Kaufman (McGill University) and Ashley Schempf (HRSA)

Want to learn about instrumental variables and additive models and how they can be used in your research? Who wouldn't? Let our distinguished speakers guide you through explanations and practical applications of these methods.

NEW for 2012! Perinatal Epidemiology for Clinicians
Olga Basso (McGill University) and Allen Wilcox (NIEHS)

This workshop will present an overview of research methods in perinatal epidemiology, including recent developments that may not be familiar to clinical researchers. The aim of the workshop is to provide clinicians working in the area of reproductive and child health with concepts and principles that will facilitate critical thinking and appraisal of scientific manuscripts. Particular attention will be devoted to the heterogeneity of preterm birth and low birth weight, and the implications of this heterogeneity for clinical research. Basic knowledge of epidemiology is advisable but not required.

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Awards and Prize Paper information:

SPER will award four awards at the 2012 SPER Meeting in Minneapolis. Please click on the name of the award below to view the full submission instructions. NOTE: All submissions must be submitted electronically this year.

Award Name (click on name to go to Description) Deadline
Heinz Berendes International Travel Award March 2, 2012
Student Prize Paper Award March 2, 2012
Rising Star Award Submission Deadline March 2, 2012
Mentoring Award Submission Deadline March 2, 2012

SPER Participation in the Joint Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology

The Joint Policy Committee (JPC) of the Societies of Epidemiology (SE) is a consortium of 13 epidemiology societies, national & international in scope, organized to coordinate and unify joint policy actions among the societies of epidemiologists, globally. The JPC‐SE serves as a forum in which concerns of a policy nature about any aspect of epidemiological research and practice can be discussed. Robert Platt and Russ Kirby are the current representatives of SPER on the JPC‐SE. In the summer and fall of 2011, the JPC‐SE focused attention on proposed changes by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to regulations for protecting human subjects
who participate in research. The goal of the changes to regulations is to better protect human subjects who are involved in research, while facilitating valuable research and reducing burden, delay, and ambiguity for investigators.

Several of the proposed rule changes had potential important negative consequences for epidemiologic research, including raising substantial difficulty for the conduct of research using administrative databases. Specifically, the rule changes could be interpreted as requiring informed consent for the secondary use of data collected for non‐research purposes (e.g., claims data or other administrative data). The JPC‐SE prepared and submitted a comment to HHS in response to these proposed changes. Drs. Kirby and Platt participated in the drafting of the document, and both signed as individuals and on behalf of SPER. Details of the changes, along with the JPC‐SE's
comment, can be found at http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=HHS‐OPHS‐2011‐0005‐0961.


*****If you have additional content for the Spring 2012 newsletter, please send an email to Member‐At‐Large Anjel Vahratian at
amv@med.umich.edu by March 15th.

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