The AHEAD Institute provides specialized technical assistance and management to investigators dedicated to improving the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of the health care system.
Our professional data and research services support every stage of the research project life cycle, including:
- Study design and protocol development
- Data collection (telephone, interviewing, chart abstraction and database extraction)
- Database design and management
- Statistical programming and analysis
- Interpretation and reporting
- Communication of results
Service Lines
All research projects are categorized within AHEAD's service lines. We will assist primary investigators who are unsure of the service line that best suits their project’s needs. For any service line questions, contact ahead@health.slu.edu.
Grant pre-award services are ten hours of complementary assistance to primary investigators in the pursuit of grant funding for their project, with the objective of integrating AHEAD services into their grant application. This service line includes in-process applications, all pilot, power and feasibility analyses, and budget proposals for analyst hours. These services exclude analyses for large scale research-related projects and manuscript submissions.
REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) Services include REDCap survey design, build and implementation support.
REDCap is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. REDCap is specifically geared to support data capture for research studies and can be used to collect virtually any type of data. For any REDCap questions, contact redcap@health.slu.edu.
Data and Research Support Process
To request AHEAD services, please fill out our Data and Research Support Interest Form, which provides the AHEAD Institute with a record of your request and enables the AHEAD Institute to address your project’s needs.
Once your completed request is received, the following actions will occur:
- The AHEAD program coordinator will schedule a one-hour complementary consultation, which will include necessary AHEAD data managers, biostatisticians, and core faculty, as applicable.
- A Scope of Work will be developed and approved by all parties following the initial
consultation. The Scope of Work will include:
- A summary of the work request
- Required data domains
- Required forms to be signed and completed (i.e. data use agreements)
- Estimated delivery date(s)
Interest forms are reviewed weekly. Please allow seven to 10 business days for your request to be processed and for AHEAD staff to contact you. Please refer to our Policies and Procedures for Data and Research Support Services for more information on expected timelines for data requests and grant application deliverables.
Following the Scope of Work, data procurement will begin and the team will execute the Scope of Work.