Wake Forest University School of Medicine has received three grants, totaling $1.3 million, from The Duke Endowment to support programs promoting the health and activity of older adults at home, addressing food insecurity and engaging students in health care careers.
PATient INtegrated Assessment (PATINA), a patient-centered platform to support older adults’ health and activity at home, received $555,000 to support this project’s efforts to promote coordinated care for at-risk older adults. PATINA is a person-centered tool that combines patient preferences and contextual information collected via smartphone-delivered daily diaries with passive activity monitoring captured via wearables (Fitbits).
This patient-centered data will be used to inform group-based activity coaching to modify behaviors at home, and ultimately enhance functional independence and promote aging in place. The project will engage older adults, care management teams and primary care practices in refining and evaluating a pathway to support adoption of this care model into primary care.
In close collaboration with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s population health management and Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s Center for Healthcare Innovation and Center for Remote Health Monitoring, PATINA can become an additional tool within the health care system’s growing toolkit to identify and support at-risk older adults.
“As our population ages, it is critical to empower patients and health care providers alike to monitor health behaviors at home so we can continually improve the quality of life and functional independence of this group and implement innovative care models to support all of our at-risk older adults,” said Jaime M. Hughes, Ph.D., assistant professor of implementation science and gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Food is Health: SNAP-Clinical Collaborations to Address the Needs of Families in Food Insecure Households, received $541,670 to help connect food-insecure patients and families directly with SNAP evaluation and enrollment in the clinical setting.
“With this program, we hope to help patients and families in need connect more easily with SNAP benefits and other resources to alleviate food insecurity,” said Leila DeWitt, D.O., assistant professor of pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
North Carolina’s notable SNAP-gap is comprised of eligible individuals who do not participate in SNAP due to many social barriers that prevent completion of the application process. Occurring simultaneously with food insecurity screening, this program will implement a SNAP screening and enrollment process across Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s Downtown Health Plaza and the newborn nursery and pediatric hospital floors at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Brenner Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem.
The addition of an on-site community health worker will allow patients to begin evaluation for SNAP eligibility and to access education and resources during their visit.
A Department of Social Services contractor will collaborate with the health care team and complete the SNAP application and enrollment in real time in the clinical setting.
Employing Novel Virtual and In-person Strategies to Increase Number and Diversity of Students Pursuing Health Care and Biomedical Research Careers was awarded $240,000 to provide North and South Carolina high school and early college students with culturally and age-appropriate content from role models in clinical and biomedical sciences.
“We are excited about the opportunity to grow a pipeline of next-generation researchers. Through this funding, as part of our Cardiovascular Sciences Center research training initiatives, we will be able to reach students from diverse backgrounds and encourage them to explore health care and biomedical career pathways,” said Debra Diz, Ph.D., and David Herrington, M.D., directors of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Cardiovascular Sciences Center. Diz and Herrington, along with Indra Newman, Ph.D., in the medical school’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, will lead the project.
This project will engage and educate students about health care and biomedical careers through established relationships with underserved public high schools and programs led by Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In partnership with Futurum Careers, a science communication company, educational materials will be created and distributed online, in print and via classroom presentations. Materials will be free and easily accessible and help underrepresented or disadvantaged students find meaning and relevance in science and career paths in biomedicine.
“Education, our aging population and food insecurity are all critical needs, and we are grateful for the opportunity to address these issues with the continued support of The Duke Endowment,” said Lisa Marshall, chief philanthropy officer and vice president of the Office of Philanthropy and Alumni Relations at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
“All of these programs represent various ways in which medical institutions are addressing some of the most pressing needs of our communities,” said Lin Hollowell, director of the health care program area at The Duke Endowment. “Together, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and The Duke Endowment are dedicated to increasing access to innovative care and promoting health equity across the state.”
To join in supporting education, aging and food insecurity through philanthropy, please contact Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s Office of Philanthropy and Alumni Relations at 336-716-4589 or visit https://giving.wakehealth.edu/.
Media contacts:
Jenna Kurzyna, jkurzyna@wakehealth.edu; Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu