NICHD Officers Visit NC Vanguard Center

Alan Guttmacher, Acting Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), visited the North Carolina Duplin County Vanguard Center in February as part of a site visit for the National Children's Study. This was his first visit to an NCS study location. He was accompanied by Ruth Brenner and Gitanjali Taneja, project officers in the NCS Program Office; two NCS contract officers; a senior outreach advisor; and the chief of the NICHD public information and communications branch. This visit was an opportunity to showcase many activities the North Carolina team members manage for the Study.

On the first day, visitors met with the Study Team in Chapel Hill and discussed the Vanguard experience. The North Carolina team gave an overview of the Vanguard experience, describing team contributions to the Study and plans for ongoing recruitment.

The following day was spent in Duplin County. Site visitors toured the site office at Liberty Square in Kenansville and visited Duplin General Hospital where they met staff from the Labor & Delivery and Radiology Departments and discussed how the Study works with the hospital. Over lunch, they met members of the NCS Community Advisory Group at James Sprunt Community College to get a local perspective on having a national study in this rural community. Visitors participated in demonstrations of specimen and sample collection, and discussed in-the­field realities with staff.

Visitors reported that it was extremely useful to see the Study in action and to better understand its coordination across different Study offices in North Carolina.