Over the last two decades, there have been significant investments designed to advance clinical and translational research (CTR) with an emphasis on supporting early career investigators and building a cadre of skilled researchers. Despite the investments, there are no comprehensive measurement tools to track individual-level progress along the research continuum as supports are put in place.

The Researcher Investment Tool (RIT) is a novel tool that was created to provide a consistent approach for measuring individual-level changes in the research career trajectory of investigators receiving support from CTR programs.

The RIT is a 90-item questionnaire, with eight domains and four sub-domains, designed to measure a researcher’s experiences and perceptions. Several rounds of testing were conducted to assess the tool’s face and content validity as well as the internal consistency and test-retest reliability.

Psychometric testing revealed strong content validity and good internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.85 to 0.97 across all domains. Test-retest reliability results also revealed stability in the domain measures over time with Pearson’s correlation coefficients ranging from 0.70 to 0.98 for all but one domain (.53).

This novel RIT may be useful to evaluators when measuring the impact of investments designed to support early career clinical and translational researchers.

The determinants of door-in-door-out metrics (DIDO) at centers referring acute ischemic stroke patients for endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) and the impact of DIDO on functional outcomes are unclear. Our primary objective was to study the association between DIDO and 90-day functional outcomes. Our secondary objective was to investigate the associations between patient clinical and workflow characteristics and DIDO.

We conducted a province-wide multicentric retrospective cohort study in Québec, Canada, of adults with acute ischemic stroke who were transferred from a primary stroke center (PSC) to a comprehensive stroke center for EVT between 2017 and 2020. DIDO was calculated as the time spent in the PSC emergency department. Our co-primary outcomes, assessed 90 days after stroke, were a favorable functional outcome (modified Rankin score of 0–2) and death. We estimated associations between DIDO and co-primary outcomes and between patient characteristics and DIDO using logistic mixed models.

Among 790 included patients, the mean age was 69 (+/–14) years, and 400 (51%) were female. The median DIDO was 102 (80–135) minutes. DIDO was not associated with 90-day favorable functional outcome (aOR: 1.00, 95% CI [0.99–1.00], p = 0.54) or death (aOR: 1.00, 95% CI [0.99–1.01], p = 0.69). Arrival at the PSC outside daytime hours (aOR: 3.28, 95% CI [1.26–8.51], p = 0.01) was significantly associated with DIDO ≥ 60 minutes.

Although DIDO are long in Québec, they are not associated with 90-day functional outcomes or mortality among patients transferred for EVT. Further research is required to develop strategies to improve modifiable determinants of DIDO, including workflow outside of daytime hours.

Mass gatherings are events where many people come together at a specific location for a specific purpose, such as concerts, sports events, or religious gatherings, within a certain period of time. In mass-gathering studies, many rates and ratios are used to assess the demand for medical resources. Understanding such metrics is crucial for effective planning and intervention efforts. Therefore, this systematic review aims to investigate the usage of rates and ratios reported in mass-gathering studies.

In this systematic review, the PRISMA guidelines were followed. Articles published through December 2023 were searched on Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, and PubMed using the specified keywords. Subsequently, articles were screened based on titles, abstracts, and full texts to determine their eligibility for inclusion in the study. Finally, the articles that were related to the study’s aim were evaluated.

Out of 745 articles screened, 55 were deemed relevant for inclusion in the study. These included 45 original research articles, three special reports, three case presentations, two brief reports, one short paper, and one field report. A total of 15 metrics were identified, which were subsequently classified into three categories: assessment of population density, assessment of in-event health services, and assessment of out-of-event health services.

The findings of this study revealed notable inconsistencies in the reporting of rates and ratios in mass-gathering studies. To address these inconsistencies and to standardize the information reported in mass-gathering studies, a Metrics and Essential Ratios for Gathering Events (MERGE) table was proposed. Future research should promote consistency in terminology and adopt standardized methods for presenting rates and ratios. This would not only enhance comparability but would also contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics associated with mass gatherings.

To review and synthesize studies on household food security in South Africa.

Systematic mapping review of metrics (methodological review).

Electronic databases, including EBSCOHost, Scopus and Web of Science, were searched for studies and reports on household food security in South Africa, reporting household food security published between 1999 and 2021. Searching, selecting and reporting were performed according to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement.

South African households

Forty-eight articles reporting on six national surveys (one repeated annually since 2002) and forty sub-national studies meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. Various metrics, with different recall periods and ways of categorizing food security levels, were identified. Surveys that used similar metrics showed that the percentage of South African households that have experienced food insecurity and hunger has decreased over the review period yet remains concerning. However, the multitude of metrics used to assess the different components and levels of food security limits the comparability of the results to evaluate the scope and scale of the problem.

There is growing support for developing multi-variable approaches for food security research in sub-Saharan Africa. Future research should focus on finding the most appropriate combination of complementary metrics that would allow comparable data while holistically capturing food security and providing insight into the causes and consequences.

Clinical trials are a vital component of translational science, providing crucial information on the efficacy and safety of new interventions and forming the basis for regulatory approval and/or clinical adoption. At the same time, they are complex to design, conduct, monitor, and report successfully. Concerns over the last two decades about the quality of the design and the lack of completion and reporting of clinical trials, characterized as a lack of “informativeness,” highlighted by the experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to several initiatives to address the serious shortcomings of the United States clinical research enterprise.

Against this background, we detail the policies, procedures, and programs that we have developed in The Rockefeller University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), supported by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program grant since 2006, to support the development, conduct, and reporting of informative clinical studies.

We have focused on building a data-driven infrastructure to both assist individual investigators and bring translational science to each element of the clinical investigation process, with the goal of both generating new knowledge and accelerating the uptake of that knowledge into practice.