Staglin IMHRO (International Mental Health Research Organization) Center for Cognitive Neuroscience



The Staglin IMHRO CCN database's main purpose is to assist you in scheduling MR scans for your project(s). In order to do so, the database tracks administrative and financial information about your projects, in order to ensure compliance with UC and Office of Human Research Protection Program policies. To start, you will need to do the following, in this order:

  • Get your scanning personnel safety certified. Once certified, they will be entered into the database, and you will be able to view them under "MR Safety Recertification" To start the certification process, please email the CCN Administrator found under "Contact CCNSAS." In the meantime, you can complete the below, but you will not be able to schedule a scan until at least one person is safety certified.
  • Contact the CCN Administrator to create your lab in our database, as well as designate the lab administrator or PI who will be adding other users in your lab to the system.
  • After that is done, the lab administrator or PI can go under "My Profile / My Personnel" to add other personnel that are authorized to make requests in the database.
  • Upload your IRB approvals, consent forms, or ARC approvals for a specific project (you must have a user profile for the PI of the IRB first)
  • Add a fund (FAU) for that project (you must create a user profile for your FAU's fund manager first)
  • Add a project (a user profile must be created for the study coordinator and PI of the project first)
  • After CCN review of the above project information, you will be able to add encumbrances to your scanning account in order to schedule scans. The fund manager will need to approve this requested amount before you can officially schedule.
  • With all of the above complete, you will be able to schedule scans. See below for the cancellation policy.
  • Under "General," check the "Status of Scanning Accounts" for information on expiration dates and your scanning account balance. Request encumbrances and update information as needed.

This process will need to be repeated for each project, or each subset of a project that requires a different IRB and/or different FAU.

IF YOU ARE NOT THE PI, PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

If the PI has delegated responsibility to you for submitting projects, IRB approvals, consent forms, financial information, etc., the PI must get his or her own database account, add you to his or her personnel list, and give you access rights.

REGULATORY TRACKING
Before you can schedule studies, you must enter your IRB approvals, consent forms, and/or animal research committee approvals unless your study deals only with phantoms, in which case such approvals are not needed. These documents must be independently reviewed and confirmed administratively in the CCN, so copies of these documents should be uploaded in the “IRB Approvals” section.

SAFETY TRAINING
For all MRI studies, all personnel in the scanner areas must have completed CCNSAS MR safety training. This training consists of a formal teaching session, a quiz, hands-on training, and a final practical certification. If none of your personnel have had MR safety training, you will not be able to schedule studies.

FINANCES AND BILLING
Before a study can be scheduled, two financially related events must take place in the order listed:

  1. The fund that will be used to pay for the study must be described in the database and confirmed with your fund manager (the email you enter for your fund manager is crucial, since the database will generate an automatic email to the fund manager for approval of the fund). You may also need help from your fund manager to obtain the information needed to describe the your funds correctly under “Add Funds."

  2. You must request, through the database, funds sufficient to cover the scheduled scan costs. Your fund manager must confirm that the funds have in fact been encumbered for your scanning purposes. Again, the fund manager’s email is important, since the database will generate an automatic approval request email to the fund manager.

To unencumber funds, it is critical that you release the encumbrance through the database. If funds are unencumbered within your department (essentially with your fund manager), but are still encumbered within the database, you could potentially spend money that you do not have funding to cover.

SCHEDULING
At this point there are no plans to limit the number of scans that can be scheduled for a single project each week, and therefore, the scheduling system does not use "scheduling tickets." This policy is subject to change based on demand and user input.

CANCELLATION POLICY
Studies cancelled 24 hours in advance of the scheduled study incur no penalty. After this cancellation deadline has passed, cancellations will be charged the full cost of the study, unless someone else ultimately uses the scheduled time slot. Recognizing that cancellations sometimes cannot be avoided despite the best efforts to do so, each project will also have a certain number of free cancellations associated with it which will be used in lieu of billing until they are used up.

If a failure of CCN equipment occurs that prevents data collection or makes collected data unusable (in accordance with the original project plans), investigators should email the CCN Administrator asap. This will prompt an investigation, and, when appropriate, a partial or complete refund of associated charges. Subject claustrophobia, no show's, late arrivals or failure of the investigator's own equipment are beyond the CCN's control and are not a basis for waiving charges

PILOT STUDY REQUEST
Please complete the form below and submit to CCN Director: Dr Susan Bookheimer and the Executive Group c/o Agatha Lenartowicz.

CCN Pilot Policy: The CCN is happy to be able to provide pilot funds for preliminary data for imminent grant submissions that intend to use CCN resources. First time users can receive up to 12 hours of scan time. Repeat users can receive 6 hours per calendar year. PIs who complete projects can accrue additional pilot time. We hope with continued success to increase these numbers whenever feasible. The Staglin CCN Executive Group reviews all pilot study requests. A member of the committee will meet with each requesting PI to understand the project and then present it to the Executive Group for final approval.

 

Download Pilot Study Request Form

 

© 2010-2024 The Semel Institute Biostatistics Core. If you have any questions or requests, please contact the CCN Administrator, Marlo Duran, at MDDuran@mednet.ucla.edu.