Objective To assess the association of insurance status on infant rehospitalization in a population-based setting. Methods In this longitudinal retrospective study, hospitalizations were tracked for one year after birth discharge for 203,031 infants born in hospitals during 2008 using data from the New York State Inpatient Database. Relative risk was estimated using multivariable negative binomial regression models. Results Rehospitalization occurred in 9,010 infants (4.4%). Medicaid coverage and being uninsured were strong predictors of rehospitalizations after adjustment for birth weight and other factors. Medicaid also bears a disproportionate share of the economic burden. Normal birth weight infants have the lowest risk, but comprise the majority of costs. Jaundice and acute bronchiolitis were the leading causes of rehospitalization within 30 days and one year, respectively. Discussion Future research can explore the preventability of rehospitalizations, and evaluate novel strategies for discharge and postnatal care coordination especially for uninsured and Medicaid-enrolled infants.

BackgroundAs sharing and secondary research use of biospecimens increases, IRBs and researchers face the challenge of protecting and respecting donors without comprehensive regulations addressing the human subject protection issues posed by biobanking. Variation in IRB biobanking policies about these issues has not been well documented.MethodsThis paper reports on data from a survey of IRB Administrative Directors from 60 institutions affiliated with the Clinical and Translation Science Awards (CTSAs) about their policies and practices regarding secondary use and sharing of biospecimens. Specifically, IRB ADs were asked about consent for future use of biospecimens, assignment of risk for studies using biobanked specimens, and sharing of biospecimens/data.ResultsOur data indicate that IRBs take varying approaches to protocol review, risk assessment, and data sharing, especially when specimens are not anonymized.ConclusionUnclear or divergent policies regarding biospecimen research among IRBs may constitute a barrier to advancing genetic studies and to inter-institutional collaboration, given different institutional requirements for human subjects protections.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12910-015-0020-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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To advance scientific knowledge about human diseases and effective therapeutic treatments, investigators need access to human biospecimens and associated data. However, regulatory and procedural requirements may impede investigators’ efforts to share biospecimens and data within and across institutions. While a number of studies have explored experiences and attitudes of study participants and others about biospecimen and data sharing, less is known about investigators’ perspectives. We conducted an electronic survey to learn about investigators’ experiences and attitudes about research with biospecimens and associated data. A total of 114 practicing scientists from a pool of 60 university medical schools with Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) participated. We found a high degree of variability in investigators’ experiences with Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) when seeking approval to conduct biospecimen research, as well as differences in approaches to informed consent for the collection of specimens. Participants also expressed concerns that the risks of biospecimen research may be overestimated by IRBs. This research suggests that the current regulatory environment for human research protections may require reconsideration with regard to standards for collection, use and sharing of biospecimens and data.