Topics for Study

Through our Pioneer Portfolio, RWJF is committed to supporting novel, high-return ideas that may have far-reaching impact on people's health, the quality of care they receive and the systems through which that care is provided. The Pioneer Portfolio seeks ideas not only from the mainstream of health and health care but also looks to sources outside of these fields for innovations that might have transformative impact.

To provide a clear focus for applicants to The New Connections Initiative, each programming team was asked to develop specific research projects or questions that would help inform their strategies and grant making. Applicants are asked to submit proposals for one of the topics described below.

Please note that not all teams have research questions at this time and the detail provided below by each team varies according to each team's needs and interests. Finally, some of the research questions will be more suitable for Junior Investigators and other questions will be more suitable for Senior Consultants. Thus, applicants should consider the following guidelines.

Senior Consultants
Projects that are more qualitative and can yield recommendations and products for the team should be answered by a Senior Consultant. Senior Consultants should refer to the examples of activities, potential products and deliverables that could be conducted included on page 2 of the Letter of Invitation.

Junior Investigators
Questions that would be more suitable for secondary analysis should be answered by a Junior Investigator. When responding to this solicitation, Junior Investigators must indicate how they will incorporate the secondary datasets when responding to research questions. Junior Investigators should provide a description of the data and rationale for its appropriateness given the research question.  Junior Investigators are responsible for identifying and acquiring the dataset.

Junior Investigators or Senior Consultants must respond to one of the following questions.

1. Video games have often been associated with negative health outcomes, such as obesity and aggression. However, some video games have been developed to promote healthy outcomes.

a. What do we know about the impact of video games on positive health outcomes among Americans?

b. What factors facilitate or impede Americans' use of video games for health?

c. What do we know about group differences (by gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status) in using video games for health?  This could include advancing our understanding of which groups are using video games and which are not; and, of those groups who are using video games for health, how does their use differ.

2.  Contrary to individual demands for privacy rights, people voluntarily share personal health information through on-line social networking and disease support forums.
 
a.  How can self-reported, online personal health information be harnessed to create innovative solutions for patients?
 
b. What are the benefits and limitations of analyzing self-reported, on-line health information?