[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 87 (Thursday, May 6, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24398-24401]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-11338]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[Program Announcement 99119]


Centers for Excellence in Health Statistics; Notice of 
Availability of Funds

A. Purpose

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through the 
Office of Prevention Research and the National Center for Health 
Statistics (NCHS) invites applications to establish Centers for 
Excellence in Health Statistics (CEHS). The goal of these cooperative 
agreements is to support research to enhance the capability of the 
statistical sciences to meet the rapidly changing needs of health 
surveillance, public health research, and in particular prevention 
research. This program addresses the ``Healthy People 2000'' priority 
area(s) of Surveillance and Data.
    The purposes of this program are to:
    1. Build Infrastructure (Administrative Core): Provide an 
organizational setting to promote research on methods for health 
statistics, drawing upon multiple disciplines and involving 
collaboration with multiple partners. Serve as a model for outreach, 
input, and collaboration that helps assure that research can be applied 
to solving priority problems nationally or in the local community.
    2. Research Component: Support methodological and analytic research 
projects aimed at advancing the state of the art of collection, 
analysis, and interpretation of health statistics to inform prevention 
research and evaluation. Integrate the fields of statistics, health 
services research, survey research, public health, epidemiology, 
behavioral and social sciences, computer science and technology among 
others. Through such multi-disciplinary research, explore new 
approaches to enhance the capability of the statistical system to meet 
the rapidly changing needs of health surveillance, public health 
research, and prevention research.
    3. Recruitment and Outreach (Promote Training): Enhance 
opportunities for research training, career development, and mentoring.

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B. Eligible Applicants

    Applications may be submitted by public and private nonprofit 
organizations and by governments and their agencies; that is, 
universities, colleges, research institutions, hospitals, other public 
and private nonprofit organizations, State and local governments or 
their bona fide agents, and federally recognized Indian tribal 
governments, Indian tribes, or Indian tribal organizations.

    Note: Public Law 104-65 states that an organization described in 
section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engages 
in lobbying activities is not eligible to receive Federal funds 
constituting an award, grant, cooperative agreement, contract, loan 
or any other form.

C. Availability of Funds

    Approximately $750,000 is available in FY 1999 to fund 
approximately two awards. It is expected that the average award will be 
$375,000 in total costs, ranging from $250,000 to $500,000. It is 
anticipated that the awards will begin on or about September 30, 1999 
and will be made for a 12-month budget period within a project period 
of up to three years. Funding estimates may change. Continuation awards 
within an approved project period will be made on the basis of 
satisfactory progress as evidenced by progress reports and the 
availability of funds.

D. Use of Funds

    Applicants should include sufficient travel funds within their 
budgets to travel to NCHS, Hyattsville, Maryland facility for an annual 
meeting of all awarded research center principal investigators.

E. Programmatic Interests

    There is programmatic interest in developing CEHS that would 
conduct a wide range of research, analytic and implementation 
activities pertaining to health statistics and information systems for 
health promotion and disease prevention research and application. 
Examples of relevant research topics include but are not limited to 
those listed below:
    1. Survey methodology: New sampling approaches, new designs for 
hard to reach populations, new approaches for linking and integrating 
health surveys, improved capabilities for conducting longitudinal and 
cross sectional studies, improved methods for addressing language and 
cognitive issues in conducting surveys.
    2. Health Promotion and Disease Prevention: Development of 
standards in terms, definitions and methods; development of health 
status indicators for within population group comparison; examination 
of protective or wellness factors and health seeking behaviors 
particular to population groups.
    3. Data linkages: Improved use of existing administrative data sets 
(e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration, National Death 
Index, hospital discharges, and employer health files), expanded use of 
data sources from outside the public health arena, approaches to 
tracking patient health episodes across different providers, and 
methods for linking or matching different data sources to move toward 
broader population coverage.
    4. Data analysis: Analytic approaches to interpreting poverty and 
socioeconomic status and their effect on population subgroups, analytic 
approaches to assessing the impact of managed care on health as well as 
impact of other changes in health care systems, and enhancement of 
epidemiological studies of disease and illness including the impact of 
behavior and environmental exposures, improved strategies for combining 
qualitative data to enhance insight into statistical research, 
examination of demographic aspects of health, morbidity, disability, 
and mortality--including issues related to the influence of early life 
on later life, algorithms for measuring health outcomes and quality of 
care, and validation of aggregated variables.
    5. Information technology: Expanded research and development of 
automation technologies, including the development of new electronic 
methods for data collection, improved analytic tools, and new 
approaches to electronic data dissemination.
    6. Special populations: Improved data on populations particularly 
vulnerable to changes in the health care system and those with unique 
health problems (racial/ethnic minorities, poor, disabled, elderly, 
highly mobile populations) of particular interest is the reliability of 
race and ethnic information on vital and medical records (self-report 
versus proxy) with a focus on mortality statistics and misreporting.
    7. Medical informatics: Approaches to defining, accessing and using 
computerized patient records, the development of uniform data elements 
and definitions, developing methods for greater linkage between medical 
informatics and population-based health information, developing 
standardized instruments for recording utilization (especially 
preventive services) for illness episodes that can be used by primary 
care service providers in a variety of settings.
    8. Measurement: Improved techniques for describing and measuring 
health status, functional status, health outcomes, and the impact of 
care and the environment, behavior, family, and community on health 
status.
    9. Non-sampling error: Examination of biases associated with the 
sampling frame, mode of survey, non-response, and measurement bias.
    10. Confidentiality and data sharing: Development of innovative 
methods and techniques to ensure the confidentiality of information 
provided by respondents, while at the same time maximizing the sharing 
of micro-data for analysis, e.g., employing random transformations and 
imputed synthetic variables and evaluating the resulting analytic 
losses; development and evaluation of alternative approaches to obtain 
informed consent.

F. Program Requirements

    In conducting activities to achieve the purpose of this program, 
the recipient will be responsible for the activities under 1. 
(Recipient Activities), and CDC will be responsible for the activities 
listed under 2. (CDC Activities).
    1. Recipient Activities:
    a. Build Infrastructure (Administrative Core)
    (1) Establish an appropriate organizational setting and 
institutional infrastructure (administrative core) that is supportive 
of a set of research projects. This setting must facilitate 
collaboration between multiple disciplines and involve multiple 
partners.
    (2) Establish relationship(s) with organizations relevant to the 
success of the Center's research agenda, demonstrated by letters of 
agreement. Cooperation with private-sector programs is encouraged.
    (3) Establish relationship(s) with organizations or individuals 
that can help assure that research can be applied to solving priority 
problems nationally or (if appropriate) in the local community.
    b. Research Component
    (1) Develop and organize a prevention/promotion research theme (or 
set of themes) and a research agenda. For example, themes and research 
agendas can address Programmatic Interests research topics outlined in 
that section of the announcement, or can be focused on problems unique 
to the community in which the CEHS would be located.
    (2) Design and conduct one or more research projects within the 
research agenda developed by the particular CEHS that involves 
specialists or experts in sophisticated methodology

[[Page 24400]]

and individuals or organizations from the community, if appropriate, to 
identify priorities and link research activities to important public 
health, prevention and health statistics research issues.
    (3) Develop a plan to disseminate research findings as widely as is 
practicable.
    c. Recruitment and Outreach (Promote Training): Establish program 
for enhancing opportunities, career development and training including 
mentoring of junior researchers, and programs for training mid-career 
or transitional professionals who have not previously worked in the 
specialties of health statistics and prevention research.
    2. CDC/NCHS Activities:
    a. Provide technical assistance on projects as necessary.
    b. If needed, assist in the development of controlled access 
environment which allows micro-data applications.
    c. If needed, assist in the development of a research protocol for 
IRB review by all cooperating institutions participating in the 
research.
    d. The CDC Institutional Review Board (IRB) will review and approve 
the protocol initially and on at least an annual basis until the 
research project is completed.

G. Application Content

    In developing the application, applicants should follow the 
information in the Program Requirements, the Other Requirements, and 
Evaluation Criteria sections.

H. Submission and Deadline

1. Letter of Intent (LOI)

    The letter of intent should be submitted to the Grants Management 
Specialist identified in the ``Where to Obtain Additional Information'' 
section of this announcement by June 2, 1999. The letter of intent 
should not exceed two pages and include the following information.
    a. Name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and E-mail address of 
the proposed Principal Investigator and the identities of other key 
personnel and participation institutions.
    b. A descriptive title of the proposed research.
    Although the letter of intent is required, it is not binding, and 
does not enter into the review of a subsequent application, the 
information that it contains allows NCHS staff to estimate the 
potential review workload and avoid conflicts of interest in the review 
process.

2. Application

    Submit the original and five copies of PHS-398 (OMB Number 2420925-
0001) (adhere to the instructions on the Errata Instruction Sheet for 
PHS 398). Forms are in the application kit.
    On or before deadline date of July 6, 1999, submit the application 
to the Grants Management Specialist identified in the ``Where to Obtain 
Additional Information'' section of this announcement.
    Deadline: Applications shall be considered as meeting the deadline 
if they are either:
    (a) Received on or before the deadline date; or
    (b) Sent on or before the deadline date and received in time for 
orderly processing. (Applicants must request a legibly dated U.S. 
Postal Service postmark or obtain a legibly dated receipt from a 
commercial carrier or U.S. Postal Service. Private metered postmarks 
shall not be acceptable as proof of timely mailing.)
    Late Applications: Applications which do not meet the criteria in 
(a) or (b) above are considered late applications, will not be 
considered, and will be returned to the applicant.

I. Evaluation Criteria

    Applications may be subjected to a preliminary evaluation by a peer 
review group to determine if the application is of sufficient technical 
and scientific merit to warrant further review (triage); the CDC will 
withdraw from further consideration applications judged to be 
noncompetitive and promptly notify the principal investigator/program 
director and the official signing for the applicant organization. Those 
applications judged to be competitive will be further evaluated by a 
dual review process. Each competitive application will be evaluated 
individually against the following criteria by a Special Emphasis Panel 
(SEP) appointed by CDC. The SEP will score each proposal based on 
scientific and technical merit. Factors to be considered by the SEP 
include:

1. Build Infrastructure (Administrative Core)

    a. Organizational Infrastructure: Does the applicant demonstrate a 
multi-disciplinary approach to achieve the mission? Will the approach 
lead to the development of a body of knowledge that can yield results 
beyond that accomplished with individual projects alone? Will the CEHS 
attract established investigators and develop genuine collaboration 
among investigators with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise.
    b. Environment: Does the scientific, technical and administrative 
environment of the center contribute to excellence and the probability 
of success? Does the center take advantage of unique features of the 
scientific and public health environments or employ useful 
collaborative arrangements? Is there evidence of a high level of 
institutional commitment and support? Does the Center Director 
(Principal Investigator) have specific authority and responsibility to 
carry out the project? Is the Center Director located organizationally 
at a level to garner the support needed for the center (i.e., report to 
an appropriate institutional official, e.g., dean of a school, vice 
president of a university, or commissioner of health)? Is the time and 
effort indicated for the Center Director adequate (minimum of 25 
percent effort devoted solely to this project with an anticipated range 
of 25 to 50 percent)?
    c. Community Collaboration: Ability to build coalitions and 
partnerships with critical organizations and individuals (such as 
distinguished scientists as well as potential researchers in training, 
universities, colleges, research institutions, state and local 
governments, hospitals and academic health centers, managed care 
organizations, and other public and private nonprofit organizations) 
and to facilitate collaboration and coordination to assure the 
accomplishment of CEHS goals.
    d. Organization: The quality and appropriateness of the 
organizational structure, the quality and experience of the 
administrative staff, the plans for quality control through in-house 
consultation and outside review (e.g., Scientific Advisory Board), and 
the quality of the plans for the allocating and monitoring of 
resources.
    e. Budget: Reasonableness of proposed budget and time frame for the 
project in relation to the work proposed.

2. Research Component

    a. Research Theme: Is the concept of a center fulfilled, i.e., is 
there an organizing prevention/promotion research theme (or set of 
themes) and a research agenda that defines the mission of the 
particular CEHS?
    b. Public Health Significance: Does the center address an important 
public health problem? If the aims of the application are achieved, how 
will the field or health statistics and prevention research benefit? 
What will be the effect of the center and its affiliated studies on 
fundamental advances in the development, testing, and dissemination of 
health statistics and prevention

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research and on informing public health policy?
    c. Leadership: Are the center director and other senior 
investigators at the forefront of their respective fields? Do they have 
the experience and authority to organize, administer and direct the 
center?
    d. Research projects: Are the specific research projects of 
exceptional scientific merit?
    e. Innovation: Does the Center propose to develop novel concepts, 
approaches, measures or methods in basic research that will inform and 
guide health promotion and disease prevention? Are the aims original 
and innovative? Do the projects extend existing approaches or develop 
new methodologies or technologies?
    f. Study Populations: The degree to which the applicant has met the 
CDC Policy requirements regarding the inclusion of women, ethnic, and 
racial groups in the proposed research. This includes:
    (1) The proposed plan for the inclusion of both sexes and racial 
and ethnic minority populations for appropriate representation.
    (2) The proposed justification when representation is limited or 
absent.
    (3) A statement as to whether the design of the study is adequate 
to measure differences when warranted.
    (4) A statement as to whether the plans for recruitment and 
outreach for study participants include the process of establishing 
partnerships with community(ies) and recognition of mutual benefits.
    g. Human Subjects: When applicable, the adequacy of the proposed 
means for protecting human subjects.
    h. Budget: Reasonableness of proposed budget.

3. Recruitment and Outreach (Promote Training)

    a. Does the applicant include a research development component for 
new, mid-career or transitional professionals through research training 
and career development mechanisms?
    b. To what extent are special efforts made to recruit minority 
professionals and students to the CEHS?
    A second-level review will be conducted by a panel of senior 
Federal officials. The following will be considered in making funding 
decisions: (1) Results of the initial review, (2) program balance, and 
(3) availability of funds.

J. Other Requirements

Technical Reporting Requirements

    Provide CDC with the original plus two copies of:
    1. Annual progress reports due 30 days after the end of the budget 
period;
    2. Financial status report, no more than 90 days after the end of 
the budget period, and;
    3. Final financial report and performance report, no more than 90 
days of the project.
    Send all reports to the Grants Management Specialist identified in 
the ``Where to Obtain Additional Information'' section of this 
announcement.
    The following additional requirements are applicable to this 
program. (See Addendum I)

AR-1  Human Subjects Requirements
AR-2  Requirements for Inclusion of Women and Racial Ethnic Minorities 
in Research
AR-9  Paperwork Reduction Act Requirements
AR-10  Smoke-Free Workplace Requirements
AR-11  Healthy People 2000
AR-12  Lobbying Restrictions

K. Authority and Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number

    This program is authorized under section 306 of the Public Health 
Service Act, 42 U.S.C. section 242k as amended. The Catalog of Federal 
Domestic Assistance number is 93.283.

L. Where to Obtain Additional Information

    The application kit and program announcement can be downloaded from 
the CDC home page on the Internet: http://www.cdc.gov. (Click on 
funding).
    To receive additional written information and to request an 
application kit, call 1-888-GRANTS4 (1-888-472-6874). You will be asked 
to leave your name, address, and phone number and will need to refer to 
Announcement 99119. You will receive a complete program description, 
information on application procedures, and application forms. CDC will 
not send application kits by facsimile or express mail. Please refer to 
Program Announcement 99119 when you request information.
    If you have questions after reviewing the contents of all documents 
business management and technical assistance may be obtained from: 
Victoria Sepe, Grants Management Specialist, Grants Management Branch, 
Procurement and Grants Office, Announcement 99119, Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, Room 3000, 2920 Brandywine Road, Atlanta, GA 
30341, telephone (770) 488-2721, Email address: [email protected].
    For programmatic technical assistance, contact: Jennifer Madans, 
Ph.D. and/or Audrey Burwell, MS, National Center for Health Statistics, 
6525 Belcrest Road, Room 1140, Hyattsville, MD 20782, Phone: 301-436-
7016, Phone: 301-436-7062, Email: JHM[email protected], Email: AZB[email protected].
    For additional programmatic information, see also the NCHS home 
page on the Internet: http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww.

    Dated: April 30, 1999.
John L. Williams,
Director, Procurement and Grants Office, Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention (CDC).
[FR Doc. 99-11338 Filed 5-5-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P