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Survey Research Focus Areas

Child and Family Services

Our researchers maintain a national reputation in research on child and adolescent development, mental health, child care, early childhood education, homelessness, intimate partner violence, child maltreatment and the Child Welfare System, marriage, family formation, and family support. Our work directly affects child and family policy as well as practice.

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Public Health and Clinical Research

This program leads and supports public health and clinical research studies for commercial and federal clients. In addition, we support a multitude of projects and proposals led by other programs and divisions across RTI. Typical types of projects include the following:

  • In-home and in-clinic data collection efforts
  • Data and clinical coordinating projects and multisite clinical studies
  • Patient-reported outcome studies
  • Post-marketing studies and therapeutic risk management studies


Projects in this program area use any or a combination of the following data collection methods: CAPI, CATI, IVR, Web, teleform, and data entry.

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Disease Control and Registries

We work to understand and sustain the public health of populations in the United States and internationally, and assist public health agencies in their missions. We implement studies to identify and control disease and to track exposure to and understand the long-term physical and mental health effects of chemical, biological, man-made, and naturally occurring emergency events. We track cohorts of individuals across time and help execute health education efforts. We have helped understand the long-term health effects of populations exposed to the World Trade Center disaster, assess the feasibility of innovative new surveillance efforts, provide technical assistance to agencies conducting public health needs assessment after disasters, and identify best practices for establishing public health registries.

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Education

Our education experts conduct rigorous studies that are used to assess and improve the quality of early childhood to postsecondary education in the United States and many other countries. Our studies help to inform public policy and improve educational opportunities and experiences for both children and adults.

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Health Security

RTI's health and social scientists are dedicated to studying the challenges and threats to our international and domestic security. We conduct applied and theoretical research into the causes and consequences of natural and man-made disasters in order to analyze and advise government policy and practice for preparedness and response.

Research topics include:

  • Terrorism and political violence
  • Food safety and security
  • Biological and agricultural security
  • Human rights
  • Criminal justice
  • Border security


Using a wide range of epidemiological, social science, and survey research methods, we provide risk assessments, program evaluations, pilot designs, full-scale studies, and theoretical research. Funded through contracts and grants, the results of our research have been published in government reports, books, and peer-reviewed journals. RTI's cross-disciplinary approach to research, development, and technical services makes it possible to integrate and synthesize all the disciplines of research involved in the study of security and related issues.

The methods we use include:

  • Information capture and analysis for surveillance systems, needs and preparedness assessments, program evaluations and monitoring, terrorist profiling, and other health and homeland security studies
  • Data collection using focus groups, qualitative interviews, Web surveys, telephone surveys, records abstraction, field surveys, and mixed-mode studies
  • Study design and protocol development using experimental evaluations, cognitive interviewing, and field tests
  • Data analysis and reporting using statistical modeling, text mining, and data mining


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Health Services

Our health services research program investigates issues related to access and use of health services by the population in general or specific subgroups. On the user side, our investigations include measures of need, health knowledge, perceptions of health and well-being, barriers to access, use of services, and patient satisfaction. On the provider side, our research includes the organization of health care delivery, provider reimbursement, and other factors related to choice of diagnostic or therapeutic services made by providers and developing measures of the quality of health care delivery. Outcome studies may be used to assess the quality of health services. Our studies in the field also focus on the health services needs of special populations defined by demographics (the elderly, children, low-income families), geography (rural versus urban settings), ethnicity (African Americans or Native Americans), or health problems (HIV/AIDS, mental health, cancer).

Since 2004, our health services research has focused on the impact of health information technology (health IT) on the delivery of health services including how health information is collected and stored as well as how health care services are delivered. Theses areas of research include investigations into how electronic health records (EHR) and interoperable health information exchange (HIE) affect the way health care consumers and health care providers interact. It also includes investigations into the effect of electronic prescribing, clinical decision support (CDS), and remote monitoring and telehealth technologies on patient safety and quality.

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Substance Abuse and Mental Health

We conduct research on the epidemiology, etiology, and prevention and treatment of mental health and substance abuse problems among youth, young adults, and adults; military personnel; and homeless, runaway, and minority youth.

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Military Health

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has the challenge of understanding and meeting the needs of a large military force and the families that support their service -- over 1.2 million active-duty service members, nearly 700,000 spouses, 1.2 million children, 1.3 million reserve component members and their families, and over 650,000 government civilian employees. Additionally, DoD and the services are attempting to keep pace with an ever-changing economy and meet the expectations of a new generation of employees while also maintaining the military's focus on carrying out the mission in the U.S. national defense strategy.

Our researchers work to provide information to a wide range of constituents -- DoD policy makers, military personnel both in the active duty and reserve forces, civilian personnel, retirees, and military families. Through the interpretation of these research results, national defense strategy and policies are developed or shaped to improve the readiness of the U.S. armed forces.

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Survey Methodology

Our survey methodologists bring considerable training and experience to the identification and resolution of methodological, measurement, and data collection issues. Their research is dedicated to the understanding and continual improvement of the survey research process with the goal of reducing or eliminating sources of error at all stages of the survey process. They have pioneered innovations in all aspects of survey research, from understanding cognitive processes underlying respondent reactions to surveys, to systematic approaches for reviewing survey questions for possible problems, to developing new methods for collecting sensitive data from respondents, and to postsurvey adjustments to reduce the impact of survey error. Attention is also given to developing methodological enhancements that can reduce the cost or time needed to conduct a study without negatively impacting overall data quality.

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