Society for Clinical Trials
Website Oversight Committee Report
March, 2008
Membership
Marie Diener-West, PhD; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Mark A. Espeland, PhD; Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Elizabeth Franks; Fernley & Fernley
Fang-Chi Hsu, PhD; Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Maureen G. Maguire, PhD; Scheie Eye Institute
Chad McLamb; Duke University Medical Center
Pamela S. Moke, MSPH; Jaeb Center for Health Research
Rema Raman, PhD; University of California, San Diego
Ex-officio Members
Colin B. Begg, PhD; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Scott Rushing; Wake Forest University School of Medicine
During the past year the Website Oversight Committee was engaged with the following activities:
1) approval of website links and postings;
2) collaboration on the development of a SCT survey;
3) fielding and addressing concerns of website use;
4) reviewing proposals for website improvements; and
5) reviewing applications related to the translation of duties to Fernley and Fernley and its subcontractees.
The management of the SCT website continues under a contract to Scott Rushing. This responsibility will be transferred in 2010. In February 2008, members of the Website Oversight Committee had a conference call to clarifyissues related to this transfer, for the purposes of developing subcontracts for website programming. Currently, this website draws from databases managed by the SCT central office, which will not be transferred to Fernley & Fernley until 2010. Members on the call recommended that a major overhaul of the website not be commissioned until this transfer, to avoid the need to make major revisions twice. They also recommended that immediate work to improve the look and function of the website be commissioned on a reduced scale. Until the 2010 transition, the website would continue to maintain abstract submission in ColdFusion. Its voting module and online payment and registration modules would not fundamentally be changed, but their features would be improved. Fernley & Fernley will research options for management of e-newsletters and blast e-mails.
Mark Espeland
Chair, SCT Website Oversight Committee