Janice Lea, MD, MSc, professor of medicine in the Division of Renal Medicine and chief medical director of Emory Dialysis, has been awarded a $300,000 grant through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards program, an initiative creative by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The funds will support a project entitled “Enhanced Patient Engagement to Improve Patient-Centered Outcomes Among Chronic Kidney Disease Patients.”
Lea, the principal investigator, along with Adam Wilk, PhD, assistant professor of health policy and management, will lead the engagement project at Emory in collaboration with the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) and Kaiser Permanente (KP). The project’s objective is to increase patient engagement and improve their well-being through a peer mentor program that will provide education on coping methods for living well with kidney disease and effective strategies for choosing a renal replacement treatment option. The long-term goal is to reduce depression and increase utilization of home dialysis and transplant in chronic kidney disease patients.
“We will recruit and train peer mentors in the Atlanta area through AAKP’s ambassador program and form patient panels to enhance educational resources and determine patient preferences on how information on coping strategies and renal replacement options should be disseminated,” says Lea.
AAKP ambassadors will work to engage peers, including patients with chronic kidney disease at Emory and KP, through one-on-one interactions, classes, group visits, and delivering educational materials. Outreach to vulnerable and disengaged patients will include: focused recruitment of African-Americans, who are disproportionately affected by kidney disease, for patient-led panels; the ambassador program; and a targeted intervention group.
This project is part of a portfolio of programs that PCORI has funded to help develop a community of patients and other stakeholders equipped to participate as partners in comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and disseminate PCORI-funded study results. Through the Engagement Award Program, PCORI is creating an expansive network of individuals, communities, and organizations interested in patient-centered CER.
About PCORI
PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.
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