1. Methods for Longitudinally Tracking Graduates of NCI’s R25E Short-term Cancer Research Training Program John Waterbor, MD, MS, DrPH 1, Luz A Padilla, MD 1, Raam Venkatesh 2, Greg Caudle 1, Casey Daniel, Ph.D 3, Renee Desmond DVM, Ph.D 2, Michael Brooks, Ed.D. 4 1 School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL; 2 University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL; 3 Harvard School of Public Health-Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA; 4 School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL Introduction In 1999 the Cancer Research Experiences for Students (CaRES) R25 program was developed as an offshoot of UAB’s Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program (CPCTP), UAB’s original R25 grant funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1988. [1] The CaRES program has supported over 550 summer internship experiences in cancer research for UAB medical students and graduate students from the schools of public health, dentistry and nursing who are American citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. The primary goal of CaRES is to introduce eligible students to cancer research and to motivate them to include cancer research in their career plans. For renewed funding NCI requires that R25 programs longitudinally track trainees to assess their career choices and professional achievements. [2] Longitudinal follow-up should be done every few years or continuously.. Materials and Methods First Name Last Name Year(s) that you participated in CaRES Has your name changed since participating in CaRES? If Y, what is your name now? Current Position or Job Title Name of Institution or Department Current Email Contact Phone Number Are you currently a student or trainee? If Y, name of institution and program Are you currently employed in an academic/training or research institution? If Y, name of institution and program Do your current responsibilities involve cancer research? If Y, what is your cancer research focus? Check all of the following that apply: ____ Basic or laboratory cancer research ____ Clinical research related to cancer ____ Translational research (basic to clinical) ____ Cancer prevention and control research ____ Cancer survivorship research ____ Palliative care research ____ Cancer quality of life ____ Cancer outcomes research ____ Other cancer related research, specify If N, Do you plan to conduct cancer research/activities in upcoming years? Do you have Cancer related peer-reviewed papers that have been published in the years following your participation in CaRES? If Y, How many papers What is the name/initials you publish under Would you say that your participation in CaRES motivated you to write these publications Do your professional responsibilities involve clinical care of cancer patients? Do your professional responsibilities involve other cancer related activities? If Y, Please Describe briefly Are you a member of any cancer related organizations? If Y, which organization(s) And do you hold a leadership/management position in this organization? Do you have any contact information for other CaRES students that you can provide us with? Would you recommend the CaRES program to today’s students? If possible, we would appreciate if you could please provide a CV (optional) Longitudinal tracking of 499 CaRES alumni from medicine, public health, and other health programs who did projects in 1999-2013 was undertaken in summer 2014. (Figure 1 Email addresses and phone numbers were obtained from our sources (see Results below) then alumni were contacted and invited to complete the questionnaire that gathers personal information, contact information, current job /education / training, cancer research activity, and other cancer activities such as clinical care (Table 1). A CV was requested but not required. Effort to reach the alumni was constant every 3 days. Telephone interview template was based on the online questionnaire. This template had added dialogues for consistency and algorithms to follow based on broad responses. Results SourceTechniqueTime Spent UsabilityResultsCommentsRecommendations Previous Tracking Previous tracking data of CaRES alumni LittleEasyPhone Moderate Online High Efficient and effective method, especially for early years High Alumni Records Searched university alumni records for CaRES alumni ExtensiveEasyPhone High Online High Efficient and effective method, especially for later years and a good cross-reference tool High Good starting point Search Engines Entered names and degrees of CaRES alumni to “Google” and "Hippaspace" Moderate Phone Low Online Moderate Best if used in conjunction with alumni records Moderate People Search Engines Using information from alumni records, visited websites searching for CaRES alumni ExtensiveDifficultPhone Moderate Online Low Extremely time consuming and should be used in conjunction with alumni records Low Social Networking Sites Entered names of CaRES alumni; sent messages to potential matches ExtensiveModeratePhone Low Online Low Time consuming and ineffective with very limited return Low Personal Contacts Contacted mentors and professors and requested they contact CaRES alumni LittleEasyPhone Moderate Online High Efficient and effective offering high return High Figure 1. CaRES Alumni by Degree 1999- 2013 Discussion Evaluating the long-term goal of a training program can be undertaken by longitudinal tracking of alumni to assess the program’s impact on career choices. Our methods provide insights about efficiencies, and tools for other training program directors who wish to track their alumni for long-term program evaluation. Tracking is time consuming requiring determined and dedicated staff. Locating subjects is done efficiently by combining information from several sources. Females are more difficult to track due to name changes due to marriage/divorce. Public health students are more difficult to track due to a greater variety of employment opportunities in public health. Using an on-line questionnaire maximized efficiency in time and resources. CaRES is funded by the National Cancer Institute grant 2R25CA076023. The content of this poster is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent official views of NCI. The authors thank Judy Baker of the UAB School of Public Health and Sandra Reid of the School of Health Professions for their assistance.