Chicago Association for Research and Education in Science

“The Form 990 is presented to the Board Members at a regularly scheduled meeting or it is distributed electronically for review prior to submission.”

“Annually, all officers, directors, trustees, and key employees are provided a copy of the Conflict of Interest Policy and required to sign a statement either identifying potential conflicts or confirming that no such conflicts exist.”

“The President of CARES engages an outside entity every third year to conduct a market analysis and salary comparability study to determine if the salary for the CEO is in an acceptable range. The report from the outside entity is shared with the Board of Directors at a regularly scheduled meeting. The discussion is recorded in the minutes.”

“CARESs governing documents, Conflict of Interest Policy, and financial statements are made available to the public upon request.”

“Program Service Expenses 2,788,329, Grants and allocations 0, Revenue 2,000,275 See Schedule O”

“Caring Connections A program to alleviate social isolation and loneliness in individuals living with spinal cord injury conducted by Dr. Sherri Lavela at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital. The findings of this study have revealed how persons with SCI/D conceptualize loneliness and social isolation, and both constructs encompassed feeling alone along with other emotional states such as darkness and sadness lack of meaningful interactions and brought to light patient views on driving factors. Findings can be used to develop social health interventions and guide patient-provider discussions that address meaningful aspects of loneliness and social isolation as perceived by individuals and suggest that efforts are needed to better identify and respond to social isolation and lonliness in community and healthcare settings. These findings will help us build and refine the intervention design and content for the current grant.”

“COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring surveillance Rapid Cycle Analysis Queries Risk Assessment/Evaluation funded by the CDC. Under this study, adverse events of special interest AESIswill be identified through ICD-10 diagnosis codes in CDW databases for Veterans who received COVID-19 vaccines. Prespecified potential AESIs will be identified from inpatient and emergency visits for most outcomes and a small number of pre-specified outcomes will also be identified from outpatient visits. The potential associations between vaccine administration and pre-specified adverse events will be evaluated in near real-time employing a technique called rapid cycle analysis RCA. Specifically, a Poisson-based maximized sequential probability tes MaxSPRT will be employed. Other approaches may also be adopted in order to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in near real-time e.g. Bayesian, vaccinated vs unvaccinated matched on date of vaccination, etc. SafeRx Post-Market Medical Product Surveillance funded by the FDA. The purpose of this study was to enhance drug safetly knowledge and expand and develop better tools and techniques for assessing drug safety through information sharing and the exploitantion of VA and FDA synergies in a variety of areas of scientific expertise. The goals of collaboration were to expore ways to - Further enhave informatoin sharing efforts through more efficient and robust inter-agency activities - Promote efficient utilization of tools and expertise for product risk identification, validation, and analysis - Build infrastructure and processes that meet the common needs for evaluating drug safety. These studies were conducted by Dr. Cunningham Francesca at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital.”

“Enhancing regeneration and improving function after SCI study conducted at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Dr. Kartjes laboratory. The goal of the project is to determine if anti-Nogo A antibodies produced by NovaGo result in regeneration and functional recovery post-spinal cord injury in adult rats”

“The Chicago Association for Research and Education in Science CARES has been serving veterans since 1984. The primary tax-exempt purpose of CARES is biomedical, clinical and health services research as well as health related educational activities in collaboration with the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital and the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, William S. Middleton VA Hospital and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. This research benefits United States Veterans being treated at all four VA sites and the general public by advancing knowledge in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and disability. Education activities include the dissemination of research results through publication in quality medical journals and presentation at professional meetings all of which are intended to translate research results to clinical practice. Other education is geared to helping patients and their families understand and manage their medical conditions. During the past year, CARES supported more than 100 individual researchers who cumulatively are conducting research projects in the following diabetic foot ulcers, antibiotic-resistant infections, hypertensive renal injury, osteoporosis, retinopathy, bladder function, neurofibromatosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, rehabilitation research and development, pressure ulcers, hypertension, infectious diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health, stroke, health services and outcomes research, kidney disease, veteran engagement, mechanical ventilation, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, musculoskeletal biomechanics, and more.”