Illinois Medicine

Chronic and Complicated $3M grant will help minorities control diabetes T Vivek Kantayya UNDERSERVED PATHWAY PROGRAM REWARDS THOSE WHO SERVE HE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE IN ROCKFORD has participants from all four classes in its Underserved Pathway Program, which enables those who wish to serve the underserved upon graduation to keep that passion alive during medical school. Started in 2008 as one of few such programs in the country, Underserved Pathway soon will toast its first class of students to graduate with a certificate from the family and community medicine department, along with potential mentions in the Dean's Letter during the residency application process. The entirely extracurricular program, the content of which changes from year to year, has components such as a mentor pairing that includes monthly meetings, several Web-based curricular modules that students must complete, service-based learning projects at one of three sites in Rockford, quarterly lectures and an annual field trip, and both clinical clerkships and elective classes on topics like "Health Care for the Homeless." Students apply for the program during their first year of medical school and are accepted at the beginning of their M2 year, says Vivek Kantayya, MD, interim head, assistant professor and director of community medicine. plications like the need for limb amputa- tion—or even death. Researchers at A the College of Medi- cine and the University of Illinois' Institute for Health Research and Policy have received a $3 million federal grant for a five-year evaluation of a new way to improve lifestyle behaviors and medication compliance, and to step up therapy in minority patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. "Even when patients have access to quality health care, there are many other eco- nomic, social and cultural factors that contribute to them not meeting their therapeutic goals," says Lisa Sharp, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and co-principal investigator. The researchers will enroll 300 FRICAN-AMERICANS AND LATINOS WITH DIABETES often fail to maintain recommended blood sugar, blood pressure or cholesterol levels, which puts them at higher risk for com- uncontrolled diabetes from the Univer- sity of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. Patients will be randomly assigned to one of two groups, both of which will meet with a clinic-based pharmacist to learn about diabetes, reconcile medications and address compliance barriers; one group also will meet with a community-based lay chasm between the patient and the health care provider," says Ben Gerber, MD, MPH, associate professor of medi- cine and co-principal investigator. As a result, patients often bounce from the emergency room to the clinic to home and back again. Medical pro- fessionals sometimes are not aggressive enough in trying "to figure out what the problems might be because if we address them it might actually help their ability to come to the clinic, to take their medicine and maybe prevent them from being hospitalized, especially for diabetes-related problems," Gerber says. The grant, from Led by principal investigators Ben Gerber (bottom row, blue shirt) and Lisa Sharp (top row, red shirt), the 10-person research team is investigating how to improve lifestyle behaviors, medication compliance and therapeutic interventions. African-American and Latino adults with health worker to address cultural and language barriers, reinforce educational messages, provide support, help solve compliance-related problems and assist with continuity of care. "The pharmacist, working with a lay health worker, may help create a bridge, because there's this huge the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, also includes as co-investigators Dan Touchette, PharmD, MA, assistant professor of pharmacy practice and pharmacy administration; Amparo Castillo, MD, MS, training and research coordinator in the Jane Addams College of Social Work; Dan Mihailescu, MD, assistant profes- sor of medicine; and Mike Berbaum, PhD, director of the Institute for Health Research and Policy Methodology Research Core. Too often in standard care, patients are shuttled from the emergency room, to the clinic, to their homes without a sufficient understanding of their conditions. PHOTO: MIKE MCCAFREY 8 | WINTER 2012 PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK

• Cover