Aetna Announces Recipients of More Than $850,000 in Research Funds to Address Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care
$4 million in total grants focus on health outcomes, quality improvement, physician/patient communication and cultural competence methods
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 14, 2001 — Aetna (NYSE: ΑET) and the Aetna Foundation announced the recipients of more than $850,000 in research grants earmarked for projects that identify and test practical means of reducing or eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health status and the delivery of health care. In addition, five leading pharmaceutical companies - AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Pharmacia - awarded more than $3 million in outcomes-based research grants targeting areas such as diabetes, asthma and pain management.
Grants were funded through the Academic Medicine and Managed Care Forum's (Forum) 2001 Quality Care Research Fund, and the awards were announced at yesterday's meeting of the Forum in Arlington, VA.
"The evidence of the damaging health consequences of racial and ethnic disparities in health care continues to be overwhelming," said Aetna Chairman and CEO John W. Rowe, M.D. "Since Aetna's past Quality Care Research Fund grants have included a category focused on improving health outcomes in underserved populations, we decided to dedicate our available research funds this year toward investigating strategies for reducing and ultimately eliminating these inequities."
The Spring Forum meeting attracted more than 200 health industry leaders who explored issues related to variations in health status and health care delivery among ethnic and racial populations. The Forum provides an arena in which participants can collaborate to enhance the quality of medical care. Working groups, a research fund and semi-annual meetings are the Forum's three principal components.
"The goal of moving toward 100 percent access and zero disparities for the nation's population requires collaborative partnerships between the private and public sector, academic medical centers and local communities. Organizations like Aetna are to be commended for supporting these efforts by funding studies that can increase access to needed services, improve quality and outcomes, and ensure the delivery of more culturally responsive health care to our diverse populations," said grant recipient Robert C. Like, M.D., M.S., associate professor and director of the Center for Healthy Families and Cultural Diversity, department of family medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Aetna awarded:
- $359,891 to the UNDMJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (Brunswick, NJ) for a study entitled "Assessing the Impact of Cultural Competency Training Using Participatory Quality Improvement Methods." Dr. Like will assess whether integrating a cultural competency training program into ongoing quality improvement activities at two large urban family practices results in improved physician knowledge, skills, attitudes and comfort levels in caring for patients from diverse backgrounds, and increased patient satisfaction with cross-cultural primary care clinical encounters.
- $359,987 to The Johns Hopkins University, where principal investigator Lisa A. Cooper, M.D., MPH, will study, "Using Patient-Provider Communication Skills Training to Improve Depression Care for African Americans." The project aims to improve primary care physicians' communication skills as they relate to African-American patients with depression.
- $149,997 to the University of Michigan to examine "The Health Outcomes and Quality of Care of African Americans Living With Chronic Pain." Principal Investigator Carmen Renee Green, M.D., will compare the impact of chronic pain on the health of African-American and Caucasian Americans.
"Today's awards bring the five-year total of Quality Care Research Fund grants to more than $30 million," said Dennis Oakes, executive director of the Forum. "This represents a substantial commitment on the part of Aetna and its pharmaceutical company partners to promote innovative, applied research that will directly improve practices impacting quality of care and patient health outcomes. Results of some of the early studies funded through the Forum are beginning to be published. We are hopeful that the new knowledge gained will contribute to improved care for patients."
Institutions that received pharmaceutical grants include: Stanford University School of Medicine; University of Washington School of Pharmacy; Hartford Hospital; Penn State College of Medicine M.S. Hershey Medical Center; Thomas Jefferson University; University of Michigan; Weill Medical College of Cornell University; The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Massachusetts General Hospital; New England Medical Center; University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and University of Alabama School of Medicine (at Birmingham).
The Academic Medicine and Managed Care Forum was established by Aetna in 1996 to forge a closer working relationship between academic medicine and managed care. It is a unique partnership of many of the nation's top medical institutions working with managed care, major employers, federal agencies, private foundations, and pharmaceutical and information technology companies to address some of the most significant issues facing medicine today.
For more information about Aetna Inc., please visit the company's website at
www.aetna.com.
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