帝王会所

A collaboration among 帝王会所鈥檚 seven medical schools aims to keep the state鈥檚 health care providers up to date on best practices for preventing and treating cardiovascular disease. In the coming year, a team at 帝王会所鈥檚 Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine will be working to better share the project鈥檚 expertise with clinicians throughout southeastern 帝王会所.

鈥淲hat we鈥檝e been charged with for this next year is regional dissemination,鈥� said Elizabeth Beverly, Ph.D., Heritage College associate professor of family medicine. 鈥淪o each school is going to do their own regional efforts to disseminate things that we鈥檝e been doing the past two years and also do some research.鈥�

Beverly, who holds the Heritage Faculty Endowed Fellowship in Behavioral Diabetes, Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Ralph S. Licklider, D.O., Research Endowment, is principal investigator for the college鈥檚 role in the . This project, dubbed Cardi-OH, was launched in 2017 by the 帝王会所 Department of Medicaid and the 帝王会所 Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center, working with Case Western Reserve University.

鈥淲e teach our students that in today鈥檚 medicine, the best quality care is provided by an interprofessional team working in close collaboration,鈥� said Ken Johnson, D.O., chief medical affairs officer at 帝王会所 and executive dean of the Heritage College. 鈥淭he Cardi-OH collaborative applies that teamwork principal on a broader scale, to improve the lives of 帝王会所ans at risk from heart disease and stroke, and I鈥檓 excited to see the contributions we鈥檙e making as a college to this valuable project.鈥�

Heather Reed Robinson, associate director of the 帝王会所 Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center, said the 帝王会所 Department of Medicaid funds the project through the Medicaid Technical Assistance and Policy Program (MEDTAPP) at about $2 million annually, with matching funds from participating schools bringing the budget to about $4 million. For the 2019-20 budget year, federal MEDTAPP funding to the Heritage College Cardi-OH team is about $161,000.

Teamwork aims at improving Medicaid health outcomes

The collaborative鈥檚 goal is to pool and share knowledge on treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, to improve health outcomes of people enrolled in the Medicaid program and eliminate health disparities. In 2017 heart disease was , and it disproportionately affects people who are Black or African-American.

Experts from the medical colleges identify and develop the most current evidence-based best practices to include in a standardized toolkit for physicians and allied health professionals. The information is shared among teams from each medical college and pushed out to care providers serving Medicaid patients throughout the state, through trainings, conferences, teleconferences, webinars and more. The group is also compiling an online repository of resources to share among the Cardi-OH partners and beyond.

Cardi-OH team members at the Heritage College include Beverly; Johnson; Darlene Berryman, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., associate dean for research and innovation; Karie Cook, R.N., B.S.N., director of operations with the Diabetes Institute; Stacy Wright, R.N., M.S.N., outcomes and resources manager with the Diabetes Institute; Tracy Shaub, D.O. (鈥�92), associate professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine; Melissa Standley, senior director of operations with the Office of Research and Grants; Jody Van Bibber, administrative specialist with the Diabetes Institute; Sarah Adkins, Pharm.D., associate director with the Diabetes Institute; Rosellen Roche, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of family medicine; and Sebastian Diaz, Ph.D., J.D., research lead with the Central Appalachian Consortium of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.

Getting the word out through multiple channels

One example of Cardi-OH鈥檚 work to date is a campaign to educate Medicaid providers on the best way to measure blood pressure, a basic diagnostic procedure that鈥檚 often done incorrectly. Locally, the Heritage College team has provided training on this topic to the 帝王会所Health Physician Group Heritage College Primary Care & Residency Clinic in Athens. That effort was facilitated by Marc Richards, D.O. (鈥�16), a resident at the clinic.

One innovative channel for sharing information is called 鈥淧roject ECHO庐,鈥� which is a guided case-based learning model that leverages technology to allow Medicaid medical practices around the state to take part in case study discussions with experts and medical specialists through teleconferencing.

鈥淵ou take a rural practice, for example, that doesn鈥檛 have a specialist, and you have a group of specialists for whatever is needed, who will go over a case with the primary care physician or whoever the provider is,鈥� Beverly explained. 鈥淭hey review the case, tell you the treatment, and then you just discuss it.鈥�

Heading into the third year of Cardi-OH, the Heritage College team has ambitious plans in the region, which includes Athens, Hocking, Meigs, Morgan, Perry, Vinton and Washington counties. These include a project to identify social determinants of health that act as barriers to managing hypertension in southeastern Appalachian 帝王会所, a campaign to educate local primary care providers on the use of new diabetes drugs that have cardiovascular benefits and the development of programming and materials on the psychosocial aspects of managing cardiovascular disease in rural Appalachia.

Ultimately, Beverly believes, Medicaid providers from all around the state can benefit from learning how their colleagues in other parts of 帝王会所 deal with regional barriers to cardiovascular disease care.

鈥淭he idea was, let鈥檚 put our best minds together, let鈥檚 look at all the evidence, let鈥檚 go through this information, but let鈥檚 look at it not just in terms of guidelines, but in terms of social determinants of health,鈥� she said. 鈥淟et鈥檚 look at it in terms of some of the inequalities that we see and the health disparities.鈥�

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Note: The 帝王会所 Cardiovascular Health Collaborative (Cardi-OH) is funded by the 帝王会所 Department of Medicaid and administered by the 帝王会所 Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of the state of 帝王会所 or federal Medicaid programs.