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| Saint Luke's Northland Hosp |
| Saint Luke’s awarded funds to improve outcomes research |
| Date : - 17/11/2008 |
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Media Contact: Kerry O’Connor (816) 932-8646,
pager (816) 440-0001
Saint Luke’s
Heart Institute one of only four centers selected to lead national effort
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Recognizing a need to improve the nation’s infrastructure for clinical research – especially related to improving the quality of care and outcomes of patients with heart disease and stroke – the American Heart Association (AHA) has funded four new centers for outcomes research. Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute was selected as one of these centers and will receive in excess of $2.5 million over the next four years to fund research and initiate an entirely new fellowship training program in outcomes research.
The funding will allow Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute to train up to six physicians seeking advance training in its prestigious division of outcomes research, which studies the results of treatments and interventions with the goal to refine and improve quality of care and patient outcomes.
Only four centers were selected for this extremely competitive grant funding. The other selected centers are Duke University in Durham, N.C., Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif., and the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. The four centers were awarded a total of $14.5 million to establish the Outcomes Research Centers initiative to provide a national network for cardiovascular and stroke research focusing on the end results, or outcomes, of health care for people with or at risk for heart disease and stroke.
The AHA center at Saint Luke’s will be directed by John Spertus, M.D., director of Cardiovascular Outcomes Research, and co-directed by David Cohen, M.D., director of Cardiovascular Research. They will lead national programs studying how best to measure and improve the appropriateness of angioplasty in eligible patients and how best to inform those patients of their outcomes and choices at the time of treatment. The new
outcomes research training program will be directed by Mikhail Kosiborod, M.D., MPH, at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, and co-directed by Edward Ellerbeck M.D., MPH, professor at the University of Kansas.
The funding builds on Saint Luke’s national reputation in the field of outcomes research. “With the added AHA designation and the existing prestige of our clinical fellowship programs, we expect to recruit exceptional and highly motivated individuals from top academic institutions throughout the country for the new fellowships in outcomes research,” said Dr. Spertus. “We hope that it will elevate the quality of our future general cardiology and subspecialty fellowship candidates. By supporting their training in Kansas City, we will be able to retain these future leaders in our community, thus enhancing the ‘brain trust’ of our entire region.”
The designation also marks a unique collaboration between Saint Luke’s – a teaching hospital for the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine – and the University of Kansas Medical Center, whose Dr. Ellerbeck will co-direct the outcomes research training program with Dr. Kosiborod of Saint Luke’s. “Bringing together these three research institutions is an important step in realizing the full potential of our region in life sciences research and provides a wonderful template for future collaboration,” commented Dr. Spertus.
The initiative is supported in part by a generous gift from American Heart Association national board member David Spina and his wife, Stevie Spina, of Wayland, Mass.
It’s expected that the interaction among the four AHA Outcomes Research Centers will provide in-depth knowledge and support breakthroughs in outcomes research, while uncovering challenges and successful mechanisms for active collaboration among research centers.
Over the next four years, the centers will conduct research to determine what interventions, environments, patient factors, and other issues that most influence improvements in health care outcomes for heart disease and stroke patients. Center investigators will meet regularly and share information with each other, as well as provide training for research fellows.
The Outcomes Centers research will explore those interventions and activities that work best and provide the most value in improving health care outcomes. The results of the collaborative will ultimately contribute to informed practice and policy decisions by patients, providers, payers, and legislators.
The awards became effective Oct. 1, 2008, and will be funded through Sept. 30, 2012.
The American Heart Association Pharmaceutical Roundtable (PRT) is a strategic coalition of ten leading pharmaceutical companies that support the AHA’s mission to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke, through collective funding of research, patient education, and public and professional programs. Since its inception in 1988, this premier corporate funding group for the National Research Program has committed over $55 million to cardiovascular and stroke research.
Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute is a member of Saint Luke's Health System, which consists of 11 area hospitals and many primary care practices, and provides a range of inpatient, outpatient, and home care services. Founded as a faith-based, not-for-profit organization, our mission includes a commitment to the highest levels of excellence in health care and the advancement of medical research and education. The health system is an aligned organization in which the physicians and hospitals assume responsibility for enhancing the physical, mental, and spiritual health of people in the metropolitan Kansas City area and the surrounding region. |
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| Reference : - www.saintlukeshealthsystem.org |
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