February 23, 2023: All seven sites of the PaTH Clinical Research Network were represented at a recent event to promote implementing research findings within our network’s heath systems. The PaTH Discovery to Implementation Collaboratory: Research to Improve Health event gathered 90 participants representing the various perspectives of health system leaders, implementation science experts, clinicians, insurance payers, research funders, health researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds, patients, caregivers, and research administrators. By bringing these various perspectives together from across our research network, organizers hoped to develop a robust incubator event for growing engaged, multi-constituent “learning communities” that foster research implementation to improve health across our network.
Starting in the fall, these collaborators responded to pre-event surveys to prioritize the topics to focus on at our live Zoom events in January; of the patient-focused research published from PaTH data from 2020-2022 (21 articles), our collaborators narrowed down to 5 topics to discuss and compare in a 2-hour session on January 13, 2023. At the end of that session, following a rapid and focused deliberation format, participants chose the top three topics of interest to the constituents: back pain, frailty, and hypertension. A second Zoom session on January 20 looked at aggregate data on these topics from the PaTH sites and participants
divided into topic-specific discussion rooms to brainstorm how they might aim to improve care and outcomes in a specific focus. The next step for these collaborators is the option to form self-driven learning communities that will recruit additional, motivated participants across the network to do the harder tasks of realizing their plans into action.
Applying research findings to standard practice of health care has traditionally taken 10-20 years, a pace that is frustrating to patients, care providers, and other constituents of our health systems. Learning Health Systems describes an integrated and iterative process of collecting health data, analyzing the data to generate new knowledge, sharing knowledge to develop health care advice, implementing changes based on that advice, and returning to the beginning of the cycle to gather new data following process changes in the health care system. The PaTH Network, led from coordinating site University of Pittsburgh, is proud to develop the Discovery to Implementation Collaboratory to support and accelerate improvements in health care through multi-constituent engagement.
November 8, 2022: This fall, researchers and internal medical residents are taking to stages both local and international to share the findings from a multi-site study of patients in our health systems with and at risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and how they are treated to prevent or manage the condition. Heart disease is common and a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Real-world data regarding testing and treatment to prevent initial or recurrent cardiac events can help us understand how clinical guidelines translate into practice. This study, sponsored by an industry partner, is a starting point for understanding existing treatment patterns and identifying potential improvements for patients with risk factors for ASCVD.
All seven PaTH Network sites contributed to this observational analysis and their team members contributed as authors of four scientific abstracts. Internal Medicine physician-researcher and PaTH Scholar Jonathan Arnold (UPMC McKeesport) was the study’s principal investigator; he mentored a team of four UPMC McKeesport Internal Medical residents to analyze and summarize the copious data in preparation of the abstracts. One abstract was accepted for oral presentation and two were accepted for poster presentation at the Scientific Sessions meeting of the American Heart Association in Chicago from November 5-7. Three abstracts were presented with posters at the 2022 American College of Physicians Western PA Region Abstract Competition held October 15 at UPMC McKeesport. We are proud to share that the abstract “Practical adherence to AHA/ACC 2018 guidelines among secondary prevention patients” by lead author Aleesha Kainat (UPMC) and 15 PaTH authors from across our network won the abstract competition.
Regarding this study and the mentoring process, Dr. Arnold said, “Having the opportunity to mentor residents through this PaTH research is an invaluable opportunity, and it provides residents with experience with research and exposure in the broader medical community.”
June 27, 2022: Trilogue™ Center for Real-World Evidence is excited to announce the kick-off of a new study titled “Understanding and Improving Routine Vaccination Uptake Among Black Patients with Chronic Conditions.” Combining aggregate queries of EHR data and qualitative interviews with patients, researchers aim to learn more about what factors contribute to vaccine hesitancy and how health care providers can effectively reduce the barriers for patients to seek and receive all their routine and recommended vaccinations.
This project is an example of the engaging and collaborative health care research at the heart of the Trilogue™ Center: University of Pittsburgh clinicians and researchers across many disciplines and specialties are partnering with industry sponsors, the Black Equity Coalition, and patient-engagement specialists, to improve health and health care in our community and, ultimately, across the country using real-world data.