Data is at the heart of research. To help bring research to life, the Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) works with researchers and investigators—at FPG and elsewhere at UNC—providing support across the full course of projects. DMAC’s skilled team provides services including proposal development, grant review, study design, sampling, data collection, participant recruitment, data management, data visualization, and statistical analysis for projects ranging from small pilot studies to secondary data analysis, longitudinal cohorts, and large-scale multi-site cluster randomized controlled trials. For more than 30 years, DMAC has served as a data coordinating center, data management hub, and methodologic support for projects; it currently works with 20 projects.
 
DMAC director Sabrina Zadrozny, PhD, says that while much of the work is behind the scenes, her team is responsible for animating research projects. DMAC’s experienced programmers, data managers, and methodologists support research scientists at FPG and the larger UNC community to implement their project ideas related to child development. The core can help with the logistics of running projects for a research study or program evaluation at any stage of a project. Zadrozny says that her team’s goal is to help investigators do the best work possible. “We want to make it easier for them to do hard things,” she says.
 
Xiana Smithhart, PhD, DMAC’s technical operations manager, says that DMAC is unique in its ability to handle all of their clients’ survey needs, ranging from a quick, one-time survey with a very small sample size to extensive, intergenerational, longitudinal samples. She says that the team’s extensive experience in programming in a range of software products, including Tableau, Blaise, SAS, STATA, R, REDCap, and Qualtrics, enables them to serve a diverse audience. “We have extensive knowledge of early childhood metrics and practical experience using them,” she says. “Another strong component of our work is that we can see a project from development to electronic collection, to data management methodology to data visualization.” PIs who have used DMAC to help with funding proposals have solid rates of funding, success that Zadrozny and Smithhart hope to share with new collaborators in the child development arena.
 
The DMAC team specializes in customizable technical support for longitudinal research studies involving data collection, management, and analysis. With their expertise and diverse skill sets, programmers can support data collection for nearly any situation―on the playground, in classrooms, in clinics, via home visits, without internet, across locations for large-scale multi-site studies, ensuring different mechanisms for informed consent and assent, and across different types of participants, such as children, parents, siblings, teachers, and school administrators. The team’s ability to develop bespoke strategies for data collection and management for large-scale, complex, longitudinal studies has been the foundation of its longevity.

“We don't know what the final picture is going to look like but that scientific process of investigation, collaboration, and learning is so invigorating,” says Zadrozny. “We get energized by people asking good questions and wanting to learn and understand more and try new things. We want to help in whatever way we can to facilitate that.”

While their unique skillset focuses on support for complex longitudinal research, DMAC can provide support to research projects of any size. Over the course of the pandemic, programmers had to get creative and grew to be flexible, responsive, and adaptive for smaller projects. The team members have developed widgets and applications to complement limitations around tracking recruitment and surveys in different languages that have arisen for projects using REDCap. With the adoption of easier-to-use data collection tools and strategies, DMAC has found ways to add value and efficiency that meet the needs of its collaborating projects. Zadrozny says that communication and transparency are key to DMAC’s success, ensuring that their programmers and data managers work closely with one another and with collaborators to make sure the goal is reached.

One of the clients for whom DMAC has successfully answered those questions is the Educare Learning Network (ELN)—one of DMAC’s legacy projects—for which FPG is the national evaluation partner. DMAC has designated two data managers, a programmer, and two methodologists for this project who work with the Educare team to help collect, organize, and share data. As the project has evolved over more than a decade, the DMAC staff has collaborated with the project team in a highly integrated and iterative process to meet changing needs.

FPG research scientist Nissa Towe-Goodman, PhD, works with DMAC through her role as an investigator on FPG’s Family Life Project, Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (FLP-ECHO) project. She recounted how impressed FLP-ECHO’s program officer was with the program’s success in data collected and shared, the fact that they were transitioning to monthly uploads, that REDCap data collection was on the horizon, and their cohort’s response rate to data queries. “With the submission for the next round of ECHO going in today, it is wonderful timing to have things operating so well, and to have our cohort looking great,” she shared with the DMAC team. “Thank you SO much for all of your hard work in making this happen…It is incredibly appreciated!!”
 
In addition to supporting FPG projects, DMAC has worked across the UNC campus with units including Health Sciences, Epidemiology, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and the School of Education. Zadrozny says that her team’s work on more than 50 projects has provided them with depth and breadth of experience to benefit future clients.
 
Zadrozny’s enthusiasm about research is palpable as she shares her love for asking questions and figuring out how to help support people get the answers that they need. “We don't know what the final picture is going to look like but that scientific process of investigation, collaboration, and learning is so invigorating,” she says. “We get energized by people asking good questions and wanting to learn and understand more and try new things. We want to help in whatever way we can to facilitate that.”
 
Smithhart agrees. “We produce high-quality work because we are really good at what we do and very easy to get along with,” she says. “Our team is capable of providing so many different solutions; we share the same goals as our clients: for them to be successful.”