Guidance from the SAC

2014 Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting

 

Comments

1. Great use of Tri-Cities nursing students during autopsies and dissections.
2. Appears to be increased interest in the USTUR by College of Pharmacy leadership, e.g. pharmacokinetics, genomics.
3. Established higher goals for analytical throughput, and implementation of these higher goals was already proceeding.
4. Found old Registrant data and reconstituted the Registrant list.
5. Meeting very well organized, especially with respect to previous recommendations.
6. Excellent presentations by staff including Maia, Brian, George.
7. Resolved the issue of handling donations from Registrants lost to follow-up.

Recommendations

1. Need to decide on a mechanism and proceed with gathering work histories.
2. Complete the data quality objectives (DQO) document. This will be needed for contract laboratories also.
3. Develop marketing/public information materials for the USTUR, i.e. recruiting brochures.
4. Request funding for contract lab analyses to help clear the backlog.
5. Participate in Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security (EHSS) occupational medicine and Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) occupational medicine conferences; hand out marketing materials.
6. Make use of WSU’s public affairs office to publicize USTUR accomplishments and human interest stories, e.g. the science fair awardee.
7. If desired, use the National Death Index to get vital status of recovered Hanford Environmental Health Foundation Registrants, then contact living persons for follow-up; however, try reasonable data search to see if Registrant meets qualification criteria before contacting.
8. Continue to pursue opportunities for WSU student participation in the USTUR program.
9. Clarify prioritization of samples for analysis.
10. Need strategic plan review/revision for long term. Clarify the value of Registries data now and in the future.
11. Continue presentations of USTUR data at scientific meetings; have marketing brochures handy.
12. Continue collaborative research opportunities.