Weill Cornell CERT Awards Four New Pilot Grants
New York (September 16, 2008) — The Weill Cornell Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERT) has awarded new Pilot Grants to four investigators for the third fiscal year of the CERT. The grants begin September 15, 2008, and provide $15,000 per project to be fully spent by March 2009. These awards are intended to assist investigators in gathering and analyzing data that will be useful in preparing grant applications for extramural funding on research topics consistent with the goals and activities of the CERT. Pilot grants are intended to spur larger research and, as such, it may be possible for awardees to receive additional support in the following grant year. Projects were chosen on the basis of scientific rigor, consistency with the goals of the CERT (i.e., evaluation of the effectiveness and safety of all therapeutic devices), and short-term feasibility.
The new grants were awarded to two investigators based at the Hospital for Special Surgery and two based at Weill Cornell Medical College:
Douglas E. Padgett, MD
Associate Attending Orthopedic Surgeon
Chief of the Hip Service
Hospital for Special Surgery
Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery
Weill Cornell Medical College
“Feasibility of Registry Merger Between CERT and CORRe Hip Knee Registries”
Geoffrey H. Westrich, MD
Associate Attending Orthopedic Surgeon
Co-Director of Joint Replacement Research
Assistant Scientist
Hospital for Special Surgery
Associate Professor of Clinical Orthopedic Surgery
Weill Cornell Medical College
“Differences in Gender, Age, Preoperative Pain, and Living Situation Between Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty and Patients Undergoing Total Hip Arthroplasty”
A. Gabriella Wernicke, MD
Assistant Professor of Radiology
Weill Cornell Medical College
Assistant Attending Radiation Oncologist
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
“Assessment of Radiation-Induced Fibrosis (RIF) with Tissue Compliance Meter (TCM) in Patients with Early-Stage Breast Cancer Treated with Mammosite Brachytherapy: Implications for Studying Fibrosis in Breast Cancer Survivors”
Majnu John, PhD, MS
Instructor of Biostatistics in Public Health
“Improvement in Sample Size Calculation for Cluster-Randomized Trials”