ARIC Structure

The Steering Committee is made up of investigators representing the Coordinating Center, Field Centers and Labs, as well as the Project Office. Their charge is to oversee the study, monitor progress of study deliverables, report annually to the Observational Study Monitoring Board (OSMB), advise on study priorities, and guide future research. The Steering Committee reviews and approves, by member vote when necessary, items brought forth from the other committees.

Committee Chairs: Lynne Wagenknecht (ARIC), Josef Coresh and Rebecca Gottesman (ARIC NCS)

This group consists of Principal Investigators of the Coordinating Center and Field Centers along with the Project Officer, and was established with a focus on field operations. It now meets on an ad hoc basis.

Committee Chairs: Lynne Wagenknecht (ARIC), Josef Coresh and Rebecca Gottesman (ARIC NCS)

This committee was initially established to ensure and monitor the successful launch of heart failure as an added ARIC study endpoint. It now meets quarterly to review study progress, prepare for upcoming trainings and certifications, and review/assist manuscript proposals and development of manuscripts.

Committee Chairs: Patty Chang

This group consists of Principal Investigators and staff from the ARIC Labs, other Principal Investigators with special interests in assays, and representation from the Coordinating Center. They provide guidance and review on laboratory diagnostic methods relating to ARIC studies involving specimens. A Lab Operations sub-committee meets on an ad-hoc basis, such as when a new specimen collection protocol is to be added to an ARIC clinical visit.

Committee Chairs: Eric Boerwinkle

This group is made up of Field Center Principal Investigators and Clinic Supervisors, ancillary study Principal Investigators, and Coordinating Center staff. The focus is to prepare for and monitor progress of the clinic visits and ancillary study components measured in the cohort. The committee is responsible for ensuring participant safety and minimizing participant burden, while also maximizing the quality and quantity of the clinical data collected. 

Committee Chairs: Pamela Lutsey

This committee consists of ARIC Investigators with a keen interest in publications. The main function is to review manuscript proposals for uniqueness, novelty, scientific contribution, and proper analytical methods. The committee is also responsible for overseeing the process of reviewing draft manuscripts before they are submitted to a journal. The ARIC editor sends copies of each manuscript to a primary reviewer (who is usually not a member of the Publications Committee), a statistical reviewer at the Coordinating Center, and to the Steering Committee for comment. The committee also ensures the ARIC publication database is kept up-to-date.

Committee Chairs: Josef Coresh

This committee is chaired by a faculty statistician at the Coordinating Center, with representation from other investigators and staff from the Field Centers and central Laboratories. The committee's purpose is to ensure that data collection procedures and lab assay results are standardized and of high quality. The committee meets on an ad hoc basis to make plans for quality assurance of new procedures or to address concerns that arise about data quality.

Committee Chairs: David Couper

This committee is made up of Field Center follow-up interviewers and Coordinating Center representatives. The committee is responsible for monitoring and facilitating contact with the cohort. The committee members consider what innovations can improve retention and share interviewing experiences and techniques.

Committee Chairs: Priya Palta

This committee consists of representation from the NHLBI, the CC, the four ARIC Field Centers, and investigators who seek to establish policies, guidelines, and methods for sharing ARIC data. The committee was born of a need to implement the ARIC single IRB requirements for data sharing across ARIC Centers and ARIC investigators. The committee exists to manage data distribution mechanisms following single IRB requirements and NHLBI and NIH data management and sharing policies.

Committee Chairs: Joe Coresh

The Recruitment Committee is comprised of recruiters at each of the Field Centers and Coordinating Center representation. The committee is responsible for preparing for and tracking recruitment of participants into ARIC study visits. The committee strategizes new methods for recruiting and reviews scripts, postcards, and other materials to facilitate recruitment efforts.

Committee Chairs: Gwen Windham

This group consists of Principal Investigators and/or Site Investigators at the Field Centers and Coordinating Center representatives. Their main charge is to monitor the hospital record abstraction process each year, to ensure that the information is standardized and complete. This includes planning and conducting training and recertification of staff collecting data and of investigators reviewing and adjudicating coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure events. This committee ultimately makes decisions about the completeness of the event datasets (hospitalizations and deaths) and incidence datasets prior to distribution to research groups.  

Committee Chairs: Wayne Rosamond

This committee consists of Investigators and students interested in methods for analyzing neurocognitive data. At the monthly meetings, presentations are made on operational aspects, such as development of cognitive norms, or work-in-progress manuscripts.

Committee Chairs: Richey Sharrett, Laura Skow

This committee is comprised of all Principal Investigators leading ancillary studies with imaging components, such as MRI and PET scans. The Reading Centers for these images play an important role on the committee. The committee supports and facilitates the Field and Reading Centers in all aspects of imaging. This includes recruitment, protocol development, scanning equipment and isotope procurement, reading methods, and transfer of data to the ARIC Coordinating Center. 

Committee Chairs: Rebecca Gottesman

This committee is comprised of neurologists, neuropsychometrists across the collaborative, and statisticians at the Coordinating Center. The group advises on cognitive function and testing, as well as analytical methodology and factor scores. They also perform neurocognitive endpoint reviews of members of the cohort who are selected for review. 

Committee Chairs: Dave Knopman