Research

Shared Resources

Rapid Case Ascertainment

The Rapid Case Ascertainment Shared Resource (RCA) facilitates population-based studies of cancer for YCC investigators, as well as outside investigators, who wish to use the state of Connecticut as a population laboratory. RCA addresses the many administrative tasks common to all proposed hospital-based research in the state and provides uniformly high-quality, well-coordinated interface with those individuals, institutions and agencies who are crucial to the success of cancer prevention and control research. RCA functions as a field arm of the Connecticut Tumor Registry, as designated by the Commissioner of Public Health.

Services provided include:

• Consultation and assistance in protocol writing in appropriate areas (protection of human subjects, confidentiality, impact on institutional facilities, etc.) and design of the required institution-specific consent documents, physician and patient contact letters.
• Obtaining all non-Yale approvals to conduct the research (State of CT, all community hospital IRBs, hospital administrative and departmental approvals, where necessary).
• Providing potentially eligible, newly diagnosed cases of cancer with specific tumors, by surveying hospitals and private laboratories on a regular route across the state.
• Providing, or arranging for, other kinds of data collection.
• Providing timely status reports, requests for IRB renewals and reporting of adverse events as required by federal regulation; providing final reports and request for termination when data collection and analyses end.
• Acting as a resource to the health care community in those areas relating to cancer prevention and control, including facilitating interaction between investigators with common interests and goals.
• Providing feed-back of all published results of research to participating institutions; acknowledgment of participating institutions in print.

For an Application, or more information, please contact

Rajni Mehta, MPH, Director
(203) 764-9087
Fax: (203) 764-5926
rajni.mehta@yale.edu