Frequently Asked Questions

Submit the information requested (name, email, password, affiliation and statement of interest) on the login page.

The Berry Health Tool Chest is a web-based electronic resource to facilitate Best Research Practices for blueberry health research. The Tool Chest was constructed as a vehicle to capture, organize and make readily available the wealth of experiences, alternatives, specifications and accumulated data that have characterized blueberry human health research to date.

The interactive web-based framework  allows users to canvas relevant research, and navigate through a self-selected series of comparisons and considerations to guide research trial development in a user-friendly interface. Unlike an archive of manuscripts, the Tool Chest includes pros and cons of research presented (research champion notes), and allows direct side-by-side comparison of content for relevant research criteria (e.g. disease target, biomarker(s), sample sizes, washout period, study design, participant exclusion criteria, run-in period, intervention type (juice, powder, etc.), placebo composition, etc.).

Users must register and be approved to access the Tool Chest.

Visit the Resources page to review select publications that may provide additional guidance.

Please review the minimum criteria to ensure that the study for consideration qualifies. Studies will be reviewed and the tool chest will be updated biannually.

Studies may be independently submitted for consideration by emailing lead PI, Dr. Mary Ann Lila.

Studies must meet minimum criteria as follows:

1. Valid baseline must be used, making a comparison through use of food records, wash in and/or wash out.
2. Treatment type must be clearly stated as a whole food, or minimally processed extract.
3. Treatment dose or portion must be clearly stated. and reported as number of servings, ass of single dose, or mass normalized to kg of body weight of participants.
4. Statistics section must be included, which contains a description of statistical methods that are appropriate for the data.

The Berry Health Tool Chest team does a systematic review annually to identify newly published research and assess each study based on the minimum criteria. Research champions make notes to highlight the merits of the study prior to website entry.

Studies may be independently submitted for consideration by emailing lead PI, Dr. Mary Ann Lila.

Blank boxes do not indicate an oversight. If a criteria input was left blank, the criteria was not explicitly stated in the publication. The design of the site hides any criteria rows that are blank across all studies selected for comparison.