Newswise — NEW YORK (July 28, 2016) – Marina Reznik, M.D., M.S., attending pediatrician, Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, (CHAM), and associate professor of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine has been awarded a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to launch a five-year research study to increase adherence to national asthma management guidelines and improve clinical outcomes for children with the chronic illness.
“Asthma disproportionately affects low-income, minority children living in inner cities such as the Bronx,” said Dr. Reznik. “The use of national guidelines by healthcare providers reduces asthma-related complications by 70 percent, yet these guidelines are not used consistently. The goal of this effort is to elicit an in-depth conversation between providers and patients/families that will enable us to more effectively manage children’s asthma and curb care inconsistencies.”
The new NIH grant will allow Dr. Reznik to lead a rigorous randomized trial in 20 Montefiore Medical Group outpatient sites to find out why national asthma management guidelines aren’t being used. The goal is to improve clinical outcomes of children ages 2-12 years old with persistent or uncontrolled asthma. The study, which launches this month, will use new Electronic Health Record software to alert doctors, through enhanced computer prompts, to ask a nationally recognized set of questions to assess asthma severity and control. The prompts will also guide physicians in their decision-making process on how to best address and control the patient’s asthma. In addition, caregivers of children with persistent severe asthma will receive enhanced education, care coordination and support to overcome barriers to guideline-based care.
“Dr. Reznik is an exceptionally talented physician-scientist who excels in both her clinical and academic roles,” said Philip O. Ozuah, M.D., Ph.D., chief operating officer at Montefiore and professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology & Population Health at Einstein, who has served as a mentor throughout Dr. Reznik’s career. “We are privileged that she continues to advance her career at Montefiore and Einstein.”
The team-based project aims to help providers adopt asthma care guidelines more effectively and efficiently. The project will also assess whether a practical system change might help children and caregivers in urban areas adhere to the guidelines. Dr. Reznik, who emigrated from the Ukraine in 1990, is a prolific researcher who has authored more than 50 articles, book chapters, and editorials on the development and evaluation of community and school-based interventions to improve healthcare services and outcomes for medically underserved children. The study, funded by this NIH grant, builds on a breadth of asthma research conducted by Dr. Reznik and the team at CHAM, including 2013 research published in the journal, Asthma, which found that caregivers often administer asthma medication improperly, which can lead to continuing or worsening symptoms.
Dr. Reznik graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2000 with Alpha Omega Alpha honors, followed by her Masters of Science in Clinical Research with Distinction as part of the Clinical Research Training Program at Einstein. Dr. Reznik completed her residency in Social Pediatrics at Montefiore in 2003 and her Clinical Research Fellowship in 2005. She has advanced her clinical and research career at Montefiore and Einstein with mentorship and guidance from leaders at both institutions.
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About Montefiore Health SystemMontefiore Health System is one of New York’s premier academic health systems and is a recognized leader in providing exceptional quality and personalized, accountable care to approximately three million people in communities across the Bronx, Westchester and the Hudson Valley. It is comprised of 10 hospitals, including the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and close to 200 outpatient care sites. The advanced clinical and translational research at its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, directly informs patient care and improves outcomes. From the Montefiore-Einstein Centers of Excellence in cancer, cardiology and vascular care, pediatrics, and transplantation, to its preeminent school-based health program, Montefiore is a fully integrated healthcare delivery system providing coordinated, comprehensive care to patients and their families. For more information please visit www.montefiore.org. Follow us on Twitter and view us on Facebook and YouTube.
About Albert Einstein College of MedicineAlbert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation’s premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2015-2016 academic year, Einstein is home to 731 M.D. students, 193 Ph.D. students, 106 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 278 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,900 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2015, Einstein received $148 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Through its extensive affiliation network involving Montefiore, Jacobi Medical Center—Einstein’s founding hospital, and three other hospital systems in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island, Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and view us on YouTube.
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