Science Article
June 17, 2004
EnCOMPASSing diverse needs
Cim Edelstein supports a wide range of scientific studies, strategies, statistics
Dr. Mark Thornquist and Cim Edelstein work to establish a strong infrastructure to support science initiatives in and outside the center.
Photo by Todd McNaught |
By BRAD BROBERG
Few, if any, Fred Hutchinson scientists use a compass in their research. Yet many rely upon COMPASS. Short for Comprehensive Center for the Advancement of Scientific Strategies, the COMPASS mission is to provide scientists with the logistical, statistical and technical support they need to carry out their research.
COMPASS is one of several coordinating centers within the Public Health Sciences Division. However, instead of focusing on a specific research effort, COMPASS supports a wide range of initiatives originating from both inside and outside the center.
"We have the people, the resources and the track record to coordinate multiple studies," said Cim Edelstein, COMPASS manager. Edelstein ought to know. She was part of the organization before its formal inception, with job responsibilities that keep pace with its growth.
If Edelstein could share just one piece of news about COMPASS with the rest of the center, it would be that "COMPASS is established and has a strong infrastructure to support investigators in their research." While COMPASS specializes in the overall coordination of large-scale studies, it also is available to provide specific services and resources as needed — both formally and informally, she said.
Edelstein came aboard in 1988 as administrative manager for the coordinating center of the Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trail (CARET), a lung-cancer prevention trial that became the launching pad for COMPASS. "What we do best, is to support large-scale studies, Edelstein said."
"The people I've worked for have never held me back and I love that. I feel free to share my ideas and to express what I think will and won't work. I like the feeling of not having limitations on what I can do," she said.
What Edelstein does best is to work with people, said Dr. Mark Thornquist, director of COMPASS. "She has a tremendous talent for bringing out the best in people," he said. "A lot of our work involves cooperating with investigators inside and outside of Fred Hutchinson and Cim has developed some very effective methods for running collaborative projects."
Edelstein's efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2001, PHS awarded her with its Margaret T. Farwell Award for outstanding service by a staff member. "She sees the bigger picture of things and what needs to be done and then she sees to it that it gets done," Thornquist said.
Quality of center care
The story of how Edelstein came to Fred Hutchinson is "very dear" to her, she said. She had moved to Seattle from Ketchikan, Alaska, where she helped a native corporation prepare a land-use plan covering 21,000 acres.
Edelstein moved to Seattle to continue her advanced education. Her introduction to Fred Hutchinson occurred when the daughter of a close friend from Alaska was diagnosed with leukemia and received a bone-marrow transplant at the center.
As she helped her friend and her friend's daughter through treatment, Edelstein marveled at the quality of care Fred Hutchinson provided. "My mother had died of breast cancer and the difference between the care I saw my mom receive and the care my friend's daughter received at the center was literally night and day," she said. "I was just taken with the whole organization. I knew I wanted to find a job helping people and decided right then that I wanted to work here."
As it turned out, an opportunity arose almost immediately when Edelstein spotted a newspaper ad for a position with the coordinating center for CARET and interviewed for the job. "Three days later, I was hired," she said.
Edelstein joined CARET just as it was evolving from a pilot study into a full-scale research project involving six study centers and more than 18,000 participants. "CARET is considered a Cadillac of studies," she said. "We were really on the cutting edge of a lot of things such as creating and managing large specimen banks and recruiting over 18,000 participants with an above 80 percent retention rate. The results weren't what we hoped them to be, but that is why it is important to do the research — to answer questions that need answering, even if the answer isn't what we were seeking."
Funded by the National Cancer Institute, CARET examined the effects of beta-carotene and vitamin A supplements on the incidence of lung cancer in high-risk populations. However, the intervention element of the study ended early because participants who received the supplements had a 28 percent higher rate of lung cancer and an 18 percent higher rate of death than those receiving the placebo did. Today, CARET continues to monitor the lung cancer and mortality rates of participants and — together with several spin-off studies also supported by COMPASS — search for factors that may explain the study results.
Through CARET, a strong team of people with the skills to coordinate large-scale studies developed. "There is great benefit in keeping a strong team of people together with the knowledge base of the workings of scientific research." Edelstein said.
With that in mind, they reinvented themselves as COMPASS, expanding their role beyond supporting CARET by seeking to support other studies aimed at eliminating cancer and other diseases. In the process, the organization grew from a half-dozen employees when Edelstein arrived to more than 30 faculty and staff. Edelstein supervises three managers and the grant development staff, and serves on the COMPASS leadership team.
COMPASS is a "full-service department," Edelstein said. "COMPASS staff members have expertise in statistical design and support, innovative informatic systems, data management, programming complex data systems (including virtual specimen repositories), specimen collection, storing and tracking, data entry, quality control, budgeting, grant writing, participant recruitment and human subject compliance."
Interest in ethics
Of particular interest to Edelstein is the ethics involved with using human subjects in research. Edelstein has worked with Karen Hansen, director of the center's Institutional Review Office, in developing and implementing systems that assure Institutional Review Board (IRB) compliance and oversight specific to multi-site trials. Edelstein chaired the IRB Working Committee for the Early Detection and Research Network. This committee was charged with the task of identifying issues relating to the challenges of multi-site IRB reviews.
A current focus of COMPASS involves helping scientists share data with each other, Edelstein said. For example, COMPASS is part of a center-wide effort to establish a virtual repository that will enable scientists from Fred Hutchinson, the University of Washington, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance to search for specimen collections online.
COMPASS also is the data management and coordinating center for the Early Detection Research Network. Sponsored by the NCI, the network is developing, evaluating and validating biomarkers for early detection and risk assessment for cancer. In addition, COMPASS is the hub of the Lung Affinity Group, a network instigated by Dr. Gary Goodman, principal investigator of CARET, Thornquist and Edelstein. The Lung Affinity Group promotes collaboration in lung cancer research in the Northwest.
For Edelstein, the best part about being a member of COMPASS is working with Thornquist and all the COMPASS staff as well as the opportunity to work with very fine scientists and staff both inside and outside Fred Hutchinson, she said. "Everybody is dedicated and has very high work ethics."
