Operating Policies and Procedures

MSS Advisory Committee

The MSS is administered according to a set of policies that establish usage priorities and operating charges. Policies regarding allocation of MSS resources and procedures that implement these policies are determined with the advice of the Advisory Committee for the MSS. The Advisory Committee reviews the budget, facility usage by service priorities, the level of facility use and time commitments of personnel, and advises the MSS Director about the overall operation of the facility or other issues related to specific studies.

The Advisory Committee membership includes: Clinton Grubbs, Ph.D., Professor of Surgery; Edward Partridge, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics-Gynecology; and Richard Whitley, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, & Microbiology.

Cost Effectiveness

The MSS has always operated in a highly cost effective manner. This has been reflected in our extreme competitiveness in securing external grant and contract support and in our ability to offer very low service charges (e.g. biostatistician: $60/hour; programmer/analyst: $50/hour; data processing specialist: $35/hour; data entry: $20/hour) to the Cancer Center members. The MSS’s current total operating budget is approximately $3 million. Assuming that all our users received biostatistical support from external sources with higher but reasonable charge rates (e.g. biostatistician: $100/hour; programmer/ analyst: $75/hour; data processing specialist: $50/hour; data entry: $30/hour), it would cost our users a total of approximately $4.5 million. Thus we believe that the MSS facility usage results in a savings of at least $1.5 million.