The Medical College of Wisconsin Inc
Grant: $336,885 - Department of Health and Human Services - Aug. 1, 2009
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Award Description: We requested stimulus funds to increase the pace of enrollment, data analysis and dissemination of our study to improve the quality of communication between physicians and parents after newborn genetic screening. Many psychosocial complications after newborn screening have been traced to parent misunderstandings about the implications of carrier status, which is an outcome of the parents’ various communication experiences. Research by us and others has shown that problems exist with the quality of communication in primary care. PCPs can refer parents to genetic counselors, but calculations suggest that there are far too many carrier families for the number of genetic counselors available. Screening programs provide educational materials to enhance or supplement counseling, but in other fields these types of interventions have had only limited effects on the behavior of busy clinicians. Thus the main gap in existing practice that needs to be closed is to find a way to assess and improve the quality of communication services after screening, so testing programs can be implemented while minimizing psychosocial problems. To maximize efficiency we have planned to begin abstraction of PCP rehearsals with the simplest quality indicators: jargon and assessment of understanding. Analyses for the more complicated indicators are planned for later in the study, after we catch up with descriptive analyses of parent data. Our pace has been somewhat frustrating, because we are aware that our analyses could be sped up if we had additional help. The purpose of our proposed supplement is therefore to add another member to our team. We especially need a doctoral-level team member, who can help our staff with interviews and abstraction, and with Dr. Farrell on the analysis, manuscript-writing and supervisory roles that are crammed into his 25% effort on the parent grant. We also see this as a career building experience for a new interdisciplinary colleague, who can arrive fresh from graduate school and become established within the biomedical research world. He or she will begin as a junior teammate, but grow to speak both languages of the original discipline and biomedical research, going on to create something new in our research and the field. The Specific Aims of the supplement are to: A. Speed the analysis of association between parents’ communication outcomes and PCP processes B. Increase recruitment to a larger proportion of SCH carrier infants. We also plan to use stiumulus funds to continue development on transcript abstraction software program. ?
Project Description: In the first quarter we have used stimulus funds to update equipment and initiate the recruitment process for a new research scientist.
Jobs Summary: None (Total jobs reported: 0)
Project Status: Less Than 50% Completed
This award's data was last updated on Aug. 1, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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