Typical Project Staff Job Descriptions: When working with the DMG, please provide us with a contact for each of the roles listed below. At times, one person may fulfill multiple roles on a project. Each position is briefly described below. If you have further questions, please contact us. Principal Investigator (PDF document)  The principal investigator (PI) is a qualified person designated by an institution to direct a project. It is the individual responsible for the scientific aspects of an epidemiological study, and for overseeing day-to-day management of the study. The PI has a formal written appointment with his/her organization, which must be in the form of an official relationship between the parties. The PI is a member of the study team that is responsible for ensuring compliance with the financial and administrative aspects of the study budget. He/she works closely with the designated officials from the sponsor organization to create and maintain necessary documentation, including both technical and administrative reports; prepare justifications; ensure that Federal support of research findings is appropriately acknowledged in publications, announcements, news programs, etc. and comply with organizational as well as Federal requirements. The PI maintains contact with the sponsor official (e.g. NIH Program Officer) with respect to the scientific aspects of the project. He/she also maintains contact with the appropriate sponsor entity (e.g. IC GMO) concerning business and administrative aspects of the funding. Project Director (PDF document)  The Project Director (PD) of a study is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of a study. These operations include: Development and production of study materials, including case report forms, brochure, and operations manual. Quality assurance measures including centralized training of clinical site staff and annual site visits. Study communications, including QC conference calls, Steering Committee conference calls, memos, minutes, Q&A, and liaison with the study sponsor. Study data management in conjunction with the study specific Data Manager, UCSF DMG staff, Principal Investigator, and study sponsor. While managing the study, the PD also oversees the study budget and monitors the timeline of the study in conjunction with the study sponsor. Research Associate / Data Manager (PDF document)  The Research Associate / Data Manager is responsible for assisting the Project Director with the oversight of study quality control including: answering and/or triaging study-related questions regarding the protocol, data management system, and clinical issues received from the participating study sites; providing training to study clinic staff on the study web site and on performing faxed data entry and query resolution using the Data Management Group data system; assisting with quality control site visits at study clinical sites; tracking and supplying the study clinical sites with necessary study materials and forms. In addition, the data manager is responsible for the development of any study-specific reports, which will be posted on the study web site. Programmer Analyst / Statistician (PDF document)  The Programmer/Analyst performs programming and analysis on a regular basis in different functional areas. His/her expertise is in information systems or communications, rather than in the way information systems or communications are used in a particular functional area. The general functions of a programmer analyst include: Preparing general and detailed work plans for implementing solutions Preparing general designs and detailed specifications from which programs will be written and modified Designing and coding of new systems or system modifications Testing, debugging, installing, documenting and maintaining systems and system modifications Performing audits for the purpose of quality assurance In the context of the UCSF Data Management Group, the scope of work of the Programmer / Analyst typically includes: Managing data sets for epidemiological research projects Transferring databases from outside vendors and from formats such as MS Excel and MS Access into SAS Writing and editing programs to verify, recode, format, and create new variables for statistical analysis Providing detailed documentation of programs and cataloguing of databases Performing statistical procedures to summarize data and generate reports Carrying out statistical analyses in cooperation with a senior statistician Assisting with manuscript preparation Attending Scientific Meetings Data Verifier (PDF document)  The Data Verifier is responsible for verifying case report form images that have been submitted to the DMG Data Management System. This person has been trained in Cardiff Teleform Elite Enterprise Version 8, the software application used to verify images. In addition to verification, the verifier uses the study web site to monitor / identify case report forms that have been rejected by the data system, so that systematic problems can be identified in a timely manner if necessary.