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January 6, 2025
Vocabulary Composition Shapes Language Development in Children With Cochlear Implants
Although vocabulary size is thought to index children's language abilities, an increasing body of work suggests that regularities in children's vocabulary composition, particularly the proportion of shape-based nouns (e.g., cup), support language development. Here we examine initial vocabulary composition in children with hearing loss following cochlear implantation (n = 163) and age-matched children with normal hearing (n = 87). This comparison constitutes an experiment in nature for understanding how early vocabulary composition shapes subsequent language development in the context of the clinical provision of auditory experience. Children with higher initial proportions of shape-based nouns had larger vocabularies and scored higher on tests of receptive and expressive language abilities at 1, 2, and 3 years follow-up, than children whose vocabularies had lower proportions of shape-based nouns. These effects were strongest for cochlear implant users, especially 2–3 years post-implantation. The results suggest that knowing shape-based nouns facilitates language development and may ameliorate delayed language development trajectories… Read the full article here.
January 6, 2025
Digital Health Technology Research Funded by the National Institutes of Health
ImportanceDigital health in biomedical research and its expanding list of potential clinical applications are rapidly evolving. A combination of new digital health technologies (DHTs), novel uses of existing DHTs through artificial intelligence–and machine learning–based algorithms, and improved integration and analysis of data from multiple sources has enabled broader use and delivery of these tools for research and health care purposes. The aim of this study was to assess the growth and overall trajectory of DHT funding through a National Institutes of Health (NIH)–wide grant portfolio analysis.ObservationsThis study used 21 preselected DHT search terms to identify the funding allocations in DHT research across a 9-year period between fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2023. A subset of grants were manually curated to confirm the search terms’ accuracy and ascertain the stage of development, focus, and types of tools or approaches. To understand the translation of DHTs from biomedical research to clinical application, common measures, such as digital health publications and clinical trials were included. The DHT portfolio represented 3.2% (US $7,628,967,500) of the overall NIH grants funded from 2015 to 2023. DHT research funding increased during this period from $348,725,600 to $1,533,281,000. DHT research publications and clinical trials using the same search terms increased from 3,714 to 14,786 and from 89 to 240, respectively. More DHT research funding was used for research and development purposes (59.3%) than for clinical or regulatory purposes (41.0%) based on manual, second-level data curation.Conclusions and RelevanceThis study found that investments in DHT research at the NIH has increased over the past 9 years and that this increase has been steady since 2015, including during and even after the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased use of DHTs is expected to continue as these technologies become a more integral part of the biomedical research ecosystem… Read the full article here.
January 3, 2025
CDC Grant Funds Expansion of The University of Rochester’s Deaf Health Research, Outreach
The University of Rochester’s research into the health of Deaf communities will expand nationwide with renewed funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With the new five-year Prevention Research Center grant, the National Center for Deaf Health Research (NCDHR) will implement its successful Deaf Weight Wise program at sites across the U.S. Deaf Weight Wise is a 16-week healthy lifestyle program developed by Deaf researchers at the NCDHR in collaboration with Deaf community members. The program, which was created to address a leading health issue among Rochester’s Deaf communities, promotes physical activity and healthy eating and provides Deaf-to-Deaf peer support. In a clinical trial conducted in Rochester, Deaf Weight Wise helped participants lose weight. Sixty-two percent of Deaf Weight Wise participants lost a clinically meaningful amount of weight compared to 18 percent of Deaf sign language users in the control group… Read the full article here.
January 3, 2025
Local Community-based Public Health Leaders Honored as Unsung Heroes
An award reception in October 2024 paid tribute to the accomplishments of 21 ‘Unsung Heroes’ for their outstanding contribution to advancing public health in Minneapolis and St. Paul communities. The event was co-sponsored by the National Community-Based Organization Network and the University of Minnesota’s Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI). CTSI’s community engagement team (CEARCH) played a key role in co-hosting the event. Staff and faculty delivered remarks, several CEARCH Management Council members and their community partners submitted nominations for award recipients, and the event culminated with several CEARCH council members and grantee teams being recognized as Unsung Heroes… Read the full article here.
January 3, 2025
Rochester Healthy Community Partnership Celebrates 20 Years
On October 14, 2024, researchers, community partners and volunteers gathered to celebrate one of Mayo Clinic's longest community-academic partnerships. Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP)—a research collaboration focused on responding to community-identified health needs affecting immigrants to the U.S.—had just turned 20. The event featured speakers from Mayo Clinic and the community who shared the story of RHCP’s beginning, its enduring connections to the community, its tremendous influence and its ongoing work. “Being part of this group has been a blessing,” says Yahye Ahmed, a longtime member of RHCP. "It has given me the opportunity to work and serve my community unconditionally…” Read the full article here.
January 3, 2025
Wake Forest CTSI Nationally Recognized For REDCap Training Criteria
The Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s (CTSI) recent recognition at REDCapCon for the best website in the training materials competition is a fantastic achievement. Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s REDCap Manager, Bas de Veer, M.S., and team recently attended a three and a half-day event that offered educational and networking opportunities to REDCap administrators around the world. During the conference, Bas was asked to present Wake Forest CTSI’s new REDCap training curriculum. Traditionally, REDCap training is segmented into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. The team’s goal was to create customized training pathways for users at various skill and professional levels. For example, a data entry employee doesn't need to know how to build a REDCap project but might need to learn survey creation. The self-directed courses average twenty to thirty minutes each and are open source for anyone in need. Wake Forest CTSI’s REDCap training modules are divided into five pathways:Data Entry: For users who enter data or distribute surveys to participants.Read Only: For users who need to search for data.Analysis: For users who need to extract data.Project Builder and Management: For users who build and manage their own projects.Administrator: For users who support a REDCap instance… Read the full article here.