FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
301/594-1364
Karen Carp, x1378, [email protected]
Salina Prasad x1317
AHCPR Funds Projects Which Support Medicine and Public Health Initiative
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) is funding three projects, now underway, to create a closer, ongoing working relationship between medicine and public health. These projects support the efforts of the Medicine/Public Health Initiative, a national consortium working to improve the working relationship between the two disciplines.
According to Lisa A. Simpson, M.B., B.Ch., M.P.H., acting AHCPR administrator, "both AHCPR and the initiative are hopeful that these grants will help nurture collaboration between various health professions to improve health care from a more comprehensive perspective."
"We are confident that the result of these projects will be a more open discussion between professionals in public health and medicine," said Stanley J. Reiser, M.D., M.P.A., Ph.D., national coordinator, Medicine/Public Health Initiative.
Medicine and public health have tended to work separately, with medicine concentrating on the physical health of the individual and public health studying the health of populations and communities as a whole. As the needs of the individual and those of populations have become more divergent, the separation between public health and medicine has grown wider.
To bridge this gap, the Medicine/Public Health Initiative was started in 1994. Co-chaired by the American Medical Association and American Public Health Association, it brought together leaders of the main professional, academic, health care provision and governmental institutions of public health and medicine, as well as those from the private sector.
In March 1996, the initiative held a three-day national conference in Chicago, co-sponsored by AHCPR, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Its goal was to develop opportunities for collaboration in health and health care provision, education and research that could be undertaken at regional and local levels of the country. The conference was attended by nearly 400 delegates from all 50 states.
At that meeting, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala congratulated the delegates for their collaborative effort. She noted, "Today, we are here to spark a new health care revolution--a revolution that exchanges the traditional medical model with a collaborative health model focused on prevention. And, only a coordinated, interdisciplinary approach will do."
Under this initiative, AHCPR and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation joined together to contribute funds for grants which would enhance these cooperative activities.
AHCPR funded the following three projects through its Small Project Grant Program:
o The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/City of Chelsea
Asthma Collaborative. Grant Number: HS09357. Principal
Investigator: Elisha Atkins, M.D., Massachusetts General
Hospital Community Health Associates, Boston, Mass. Project
period: 9/30/96-9/29/97. Award amount: $25,199.
This project will provide support, education and access to
primary care and preventive services for individuals
presenting an acute asthmatic episode in the Chelsea school
system or at the MGH Urgent Care Center. Project goals
include: increasing access to primary care for patients who
do not have an identified provider; facilitating public
health intervention within the home environment; providing
ongoing education and support to individuals with asthma;
and providing followup to insure necessary services are
obtained.
o Developing an Ongoing Collaboration between Metropolitan
Nashville/Davidson County Health Department and Vanderbilt
University Medical Center Clinicians. Grant Number:
HS09359. Principal Investigator: Anthony Chapdelaine, M.D.,
M.S.P.H., Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County Health
Department, Nashville, Tenn. Project period: 9/30/96-9/29/97.
Award amount: $34,902.
The Davidson County Health Department will be a training
site for doctoral-level students enrolled in the Vanderbilt
University Department of Preventive Medicine's inaugural
Masters in Public Health program. The goals of this project
are: to acquaint students with public health practice at the
local level; to form an alliance between Vanderbilt
clinicians and the Metropolitan Health Department (MHD) to
better monitor key conditions; to provide technical
assistance from the Department of Preventive Medicine to the
MHD; and to generate projects of public health importance
that would be the topic of larger collaborative research
activities.
o Evaluation of Ischemic Heart Disease in Monroe County. Grant
Number: HS09358. Principal Investigator: Alvin Mushlin,
M.D., Sc.M., University of Rochester, Rochester, NY. Project
period: 9/30/96-9/29/97. Award amount: $39,481.
This project aims to bring together representatives from the
community, hospitals, and health care plans of Monroe County
for strategic planning to improve the treatment of ischemic
heart disease. The representatives will (1) examine
community-level data to better define patterns of illness,
mortality and service utilization within Monroe County; (2)
analyze patient-specific and aggregate variables with regard
to in-hospital procedures and mortality for myocardial
infarction; and (3) formally integrate and disseminate the
results to improve overall planning and consensus-building
for this condition.
AHCPR, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is the lead agency charged with supporting research designed to improve the quality of health care, reduce its cost, and enhance access to essential services. AHCPR's broad programsof research and technology assessment bring practical, science-based information to medical practitioners, and to consumers and other health care purchasers. To find out more about AHCPR, its research findings and publications, visit AHCPR's home page on the World Wide Web, at http://www.ahcpr.gov/.
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Note: A copy of the conference summary and information about participating in the initiative can be obtained by contacting Stanley J. Reiser, M.D., M.P.A., Ph.D., national coordinator, Medicine/Public Health Initiative, the University of Texas-Houston, 6431 Fanni n, P.O. Box 20708, Houston, Texas 77225.
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