Currently Funded Research
- Nancy Allen
- Malek Alnajar
- Emily Barrows
- Alycia Bristol
- Ann Butt
- Sara Bybee
- Sue Chase-Cantarini
- Scott Christensen
- Mollie Cummins
- Kara Dassel
- Katherine Doyon
- Jackie Eaton
- Linda Edelman
- Lee Ellington
- Valerie Flattes
- Julie Gee
- Perry Gee
- Jia-Wen Guo
- Eli Iacob
- Jacqueline Kent-Marvick
- Deanna Kepka
- Tek Kilgore
- Gwen Latendresse
- Lauri Linder
- Michelle Litchman
- Keisa Lynch
- Schola Matovu
- Kathleen Mooney
- Sumin Park
- Christine Platt
- Lynn Reinke
- Ana Sanchez-Birkhead
- Shawna Sisler
- Elizabeth Sloss
- Catherine Staes
- Kathie Supiano
- Katherine Sward
- Djin Tay
- Gail Towsley
- Lisa Taylor-Swanson
- Gillian Tufts
- Julie Valentine
- Andrea Wallace
- Katie Ward
- Echo Warner
- Rebecca Wilson
- Bob Wong
- Xiaoming Sheng
Advancing Acute Care Nurses to Address and Manage Social Determinants of Health
Funding: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention (NEPQR)-Registered Nurse Training Program Grant
During this 3-year project, the team will award scholarships to racially and ethnically diverse RN to BS students, and create learning modules about health equity, social determinants of health (SDOH), and cultural sensitivity that students will complete. Goals are to increase the number of racially/ethnically diverse undergraduate nurses to mirror the diversity of Utah’s patient population, and improve the competency of nursing students and the acute care nursing workforce in Utah to provide equitable health care that is culturally sensitive and addresses SDOH. Team members include Dr. Ana Sanchez-Birkhead, EDI Director, Dr. Brenda Luther, Dr. Linda Edelman, Dr. Rebecca Wilson, Dr. Dina Drits, Dr. Sue Chase-Cantarini, and Dr. Melody Krahulec.
Faculty: Nancy Allen
FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) Intervention for CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) Uptake in Hispanic Adults with T1D (Type 1 diabetes)
Funding: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases R01 Grant
During this 4-year study, the investigators will aim to increase the number of Hispanics with Type 1 diabetes seen at FQHCs who use continuous glucose monitoring.
Faculty: Nancy Allen
Increasing Access to Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support to Deaf and Hard of Hearing People
Funding: Margolis Foundation
Dates: 1/1/2022 – 12/31/2022
The goal of this project is to increase access to diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) in a way that is acceptable to Deaf and hard-of-hearing people. They will adapt, implement, and refine, a time efficient DSMES program delivered via telehealth by a team of multidisciplinary experts that encourages care partner and peer support to improve A1C (a marker for blood sugar levels) and diabetes self-management in Deaf and hard of hearing populations to reduce disparities.
Faculty: Michelle Litchman, Angie Fagerlin, Nancy Allen, Eli Iacob
Share plus: Continuous Glucose Monitoring with Data Sharing in Older Adults with T1D and Their Care Partners
Funding: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01 grant)
The purpose of their study is to test an intervention, called Share plus, aimed at improving the use of data sharing between persons with diabetes and their care partners in order to maximize the benefits of continuous glucose monitoring. The Share plus intervention provides instruction to current continuous glucose monitoring users about setting up the data sharing app, strengthening dyadic communication and problem solving, and establishing a data-sharing action plan for older adults with type 1 diabetes and their care partners.
Faculty: Dr. Nancy Allen, Dr. Michelle Litchman, Dr. Cynthia Berg, Dr. Eli Iacob, and Dr. Jonathan Butner
Exploring the Impact of Virtual Reality Experience to Increase Empathy and Awareness.
Funding: College of Nursing Excellence in Education
Faculty: Nancy Allen, Julie Gee, Malek Alnajar, Ann Butt, Emily Barrows, Katherine Doyon
Exploring the Impact of Virtual Reality Experience to Increase Empathy and Awareness.
Funding: College of Nursing Excellence in Education
Faculty: Nancy Allen, Julie Gee, Malek Alnajar, Ann Butt, Emily Barrows, Katherine Doyon
Exploring the Impact of Virtual Reality Experience to Increase Empathy and Awareness.
Funding: College of Nursing Excellence in Education
Faculty: Nancy Allen, Julie Gee, Malek Alnajar, Ann Butt, Emily Barrows, Katherine Doyon
Uncovering Caregiver Discharge Readiness for Patient Care Transitions from Hospital to Home: The UCare Study
Funding: Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) R01 Grant
During this 3-year study, their goal is to develop and test a measure that captures the unique factors important to caregivers’ feelings of readiness to engage in caregiving upon discharge from the hospital. Using a mixed-methods approach, the specific aims of this study are to 1) develop a theoretically grounded and psychometrically sound caregiver hospital discharge readiness scale (FamRHDS-R); 2) establish the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the FamRHDS-R; and 3) establish whether and how the FamRHDS-R is associated with a range of caregiver and patient outcomes.
Faculty: Andrea Wallace , Alycia Bristol
Partnering with UHealth to Design ePCT non-pharmacological interventions for PLWD and CPs
Funding: The National Institute on Aging’s IMPACT Collaboratory Health Care Scholars Program
Abbreviations: embedded pragmatic clinical trial (ePCT); persons living with dementia (PLWD); care partners (CP).
Faculty: Alycia Bristol
Exploring the Impact of Virtual Reality Experience to Increase Empathy and Awareness.
Funding: College of Nursing Excellence in Education
Faculty: Nancy Allen, Julie Gee, Malek Alnajar, Ann Butt, Emily Barrows, Katherine Doyon
Developing an Inclusive Measure of Financial Hardship for People Living with Dementia and their Care Contributors
Funding: National Institute on Aging
The purpose of this study is to develop and validate an inclusive Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia (AD/ADRD)-focused measure of financial hardship for use by care contributors to sexual and gender minority (SGM) and non-SGM persons living with dementia (PLWD). A validated screener that is inclusive enough to capture the unique experiences of SGM PLWD and their care contributors in the context of AD/ADRD will help with the early identification of those at greatest risk of financial hardship and related negative physical and mental health outcomes. The increasing prevalence of older adults (SGM and non-SGM) with AD/ADRD, the growing diversity of the population, and projections that AD/ADRD is becoming the most expensive disease in the world suggest that this project has the potential to make a significant impact not only on the lives of SGM and non-SGM PLWD and their care contributors, but may also contribute vital knowledge to inform future programs and policies.
Faculty: Sara Bybee, Kara Dassel, Eli Iacob, Fernando Wilson, Troy Andersen (consultant), Jason Flatt (consultant)
Fostering Equitable Dementia Care for Hispanic/Latino Communities.
Funding: The Alzheimer’s Association
Dr. Bybee aims to provide equitable dementia care by translating the LEAD Guide (Life-Planning in Early Alzheimer's & Other Dementias) into Spanish (S-LEAD). She will incorporate community-based participatory research practices within a cultural adaptation framework to refine S-LEAD, design an intervention, and evaluate its effects among Hispanic/Latino Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia dyads. Co-investigators include Drs. Kara Dassel and Eli Iacob.
Faculty: Sara Bybee, Kara Dassel, Eli Iacob
Hispanic/Latino Individuals’ Experiences of Housing Instability and Resilience.
Funding: The Emma Eccles Jones Nursing Research Center
Awarded a $28,689 pilot grant to Dr. Sara Bybee, along with co-investigators Dr. Andrea Wallace and Sarah Canham from the College of Social Work, will conduct a mixed-methods pilot study to explore the lived experience of Hispanic individuals who have and have not received housing assistance when experiencing housing instability.
Faculty: Sara Bybee, Andrea Wallace, Sarah Canham
GENIE (Gamified Asynchronous LEarNing of IPE Telehealth)
Funding: Academy of Health Science Educators (AHSE)
Dates: 1/1/2022-12/31/2022
Faculty: Jia-Wen Guo, Sue Chase-Cantarini
Why Nurses Do Not Report: Understanding Nursing Victim Reactions, Attitudes, and Likelihood to Report Patient Aggression
Funding: Sigma Theta Tau - Gamma Rho Chapter
Dr. Scott Christensen received a research grant from the Gamma Rho Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau to help fund his dissertation research.
Faculty: Scott Christensen
Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative
Funding: Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University
This award is part of a consortium project funded by NIH National Heart Lung & Blood Institute - The RECOVER Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) Electronic Health Record (EHR} Cohort Study. Received an additional amendment for her subcontract from the Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University in the amount of $49,280, extending the project “Researching COVID TO Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative” until Nov 30, 2024.
Faculty: Mollie Cummins
Community-Driven Sensor Metadata Ecosystem for Exposure Health.
Funding: The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Awarded a $3.1 million, 5-year R24 grant to advance methods for exposure health research entailing sensors, the team will develop a logical model for representing diverse types of sensor metadata; discover and harmonize sensor and device metadata in a community-driven approach; design and evaluate a user-facing metadata repository; develop specifications, logical models, and the functions needed to transform any exposure health data into an event-based format, enhanced with spatial and temporal coordinates; and develop prototype workflows that research teams can use as models. Building on prior research and development efforts, and in conjunction with the University of Utah's Center of Excellence in Exposure Health Informatics, the team will engage the environmental exposure health research community through an expert panel, user-centered design, public comment, and a communications plan. The team expects to develop community-driven, shared, and generalizable tools for metadata and data management, supporting reproducible environmental exposure health research.
Faculty: Mollie Cummins, Kathy Sward, Julio Facelli (DBMI), Ramkiran Gouripeddi
End-of-Life Care Planning Intervention
Funding: Alzheimers Association (AARG-20-685951)
Dates: 7/1/2020 - 6/30/2023
This conceptual model and evaluation of the LEAD intervention will inform future hypothesis development and testing. This intervention advances the science of dementia EOL care planning and addresses public health challenges by guiding and supporting families through challenging EOL care planning conversations, facilitating the documentation and transfer of knowledge regarding EOL care preferences and values (13) and ultimately improving quality of life for individuals with ADRD and their care-partners (4).
Faculty: Kara Dassel
LEADing End-of-Life Dementia Care Conversations
Funding: NIH National Institute on Aging
Dates: 6/1/2022-5/31/2027
This research project will: 1) evaluate the usability, acceptability, feasibility, and initial efficacy of the LEAD Intervention (Life-Planning in Early Alzheimer’s and Dementia) as a self-administered, dementia-focused web-based tool that can be used to facilitate the advanced care planning (ACP) process for 60 diverse community-dwelling pairs consisting of persons in the preclinical or early stage of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and their care partner, 2) assess the initial efficacy of the LEAD Intervention on decision-making confidence, relationship quality, subjective well-being, and anxiety in both the care recipient and care partner, and 3) examine the process of ACP congruence (shared understanding of the care recipients’ values and preferences regarding EOL care) as the primary factor related to changes observed during the LEAD intervention. Results from this study have the potential to guide and accelerate the implementation of the LEAD Intervention to community and health care practice, where a dementia-focused ACP process is needed.
Faculty: Kara Dassel
Knowledge, Experience, and Attitudes of Health Care Providers Regarding VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking) and MAID (medical assistance in dying) in Dementia
Exploring the Impact of Virtual Reality Experience to Increase Empathy and Awareness.
Funding: College of Nursing Excellence in Education
Faculty: Nancy Allen, Julie Gee, Malek Alnajar, Ann Butt, Emily Barrows, Katherine Doyon
Promoting Age Inclusivity to Enhance Educational Excellence within the University of Utah College of Nursing
Funding: Teaching Innovation Team (TITe) Intramural Grant
Age inclusivity is an important aspect of meeting the needs of an aging population. In higher education, age stratification is often reinforced in how faculty and staff view traditional vs. nontraditional students. Unfortunately, this reduces the ability of trainees to prepare to work with older adults upon graduation. Age inclusivity has positive outcomes for learning, including improving health, reducing social isolation, and decreasing ageism. The College of Nursing (CON) is an important setting to innovate age inclusivity because of longstanding collaborations across nursing and gerontology and the strong commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. The team will enhance educational excellence in the College by 1) conducting a needs assessment of age inclusivity, 2) developing training opportunities to improve age inclusivity, and 3) applying for Gerontology Interdisciplinary Program accreditation.
Faculty: Jackie Eaton
Developing an innovation arts-based drama intervention to reduce stress in family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
Funding: NIH NIA (1K01AG065623-01A1)
Dates: 1/15/2021 - 12/31/2025
Persons with dementia experience behavioral symptoms such as agitation, combativeness, depression, and apathy. These behaviors increase caregiver stress, which leads to negative outcomes, such as poor health, depression, and increased caregiver burden. This project seeks to develop and test an intervention to prepare caregivers for behavioral symptoms in order to reduce stress and improve the overall quality of life for both the caregiver and the person with dementia.
Faculty: Jacqueline Eaton
Developing and Testing the Enhancing Active Caregiver Training (EnACT) Intervention for Dementia Family Caregivers
Funding: NIH/NIA
Dates: 01/15/2021 - 12/31/2025
Persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) experience behavioral symptoms such as agitation, combativeness, depression, and apathy. These behaviors increase caregiver stress, which leads to negative outcomes such as poor health, depression, and increased caregiver burden. This project seeks to develop and test an intervention to enhance active caregiver skill training to prepare caregivers to better manage behavioral symptoms in order to improve ADRD caregiver wellbeing.
Faculty: Jacqueline Eaton
Provide Collaborative Care Training for office-based addiction treatment in health clinics, and support community-based programs for patients and families
Funding: HRSA Rural Communities Opioid Response Program
During this 4-year project, the team will provide Collaborative Care Training for office-based addiction treatment in health clinics, and support community-based programs for patients and families in Carbon, Emery, and Wayne counties.
Faculty: Linda Edelman
Utah's Geriatric Education Consortium Competing Continuation
Funding: HRSA (2 U1QHP287410400)
Dates: 7/1/2019 - 6/30/2024
Utah has one of the fastest growing aging populations. Its 85-years and older population is projected to increase 8-fold between 2006 and 2050. As a result, the use of long-term services and supports (LTSS) is increasing and the capacity and competencies of the interprofessional (IP) LTSS workforce, families, and caregivers will need to be expanded to provide value-based, person-centered care. The purpose of the Utah Geriatric Education Consortium is to enhance healthcare provider workforce capacity to integrate geriatrics and primary care outcomes of older adults utilizing LTSS, and to increase patient, family, and caregiver engagement across rural and urban Utah. To achieve this purpose, we will expand on our successes over the past 4 years in building sustainable partnerships with HealthInsight, our quality improvement organization, and add new long-term care (LTC) and LTSS primary care partners, including home health/hospice and assisted living.
Faculty: Linda Edelman
Interdisciplinary Training in Cancer, Caregiving and End-of-Life Care
Funding: NIH/NINR (T32NR013456)
Dates: 7/1/2018-6/30/2023
The number of patients with chronic and life-limiting illnesses, like cancer, and their family caregivers are increasing, and their health and psychosocial needs are having a profound impact on health services. Our NIH-funded training program is shaping the next generation of scientists to provide evidence on how to best help patients and families sustain health and well-being, foster patient and family engagement, manage symptoms associated with chronic disease, and die free of pain and family burden. This program will support eight pre-doctoral and eight post-doctoral trainees.
Faculty: Lee Ellington (Co-PIs); Kathi Mooney (Co-PIs)
Research Collaborative for Family Caregivers of Older Adults
Funding: NIH NIA (1K07AG068185-01)
Dates: 9/1/2020 - 4/30/2025
With the number of U.S. family caregivers shrinking and the demands on their health and wellbeing increasing, we are facing a family caregiver public health crisis. By connecting new and established interdisciplinary researchers, we can spark new and innovative solutions for the benefit of family caregivers and their care recipients. This K07 Academic Leadership Career Award proposes to formalize connections and promote collaborations across disciplines and academic entities at the University of Utah and Utah Health Sciences to provide the necessary infrastructure, mentoring, content and methodologic expertise to improve the support of family caregivers of older adults.
Faculty: Lee Ellington
Addressing Barriers to Primary Care Work Force Needs in Rural and Underserved Settings with Academic-Clinical Partnerships and Innovations in Technology
Funding: HRSA, Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Grant Program (T94HP32908)
Dates: 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2023
This project addresses the growing demand for primary care (PC) services in Utah’s rural communities. The overall purpose is to create sustainable academic-clinical partnerships that result in an increase in advance-practice nurse (APN) graduates who are well prepared to deliver high quality primary care in rural Utah communities. The project has four objectives: 1) increase the availability of rural immersive clinical training sites for APN students by strengthening existing academic-clinical partnerships that serve rural communities in Utah; 2) prepare primary care APN students to practice in rural community settings through enhanced didactic education, longitudinal immersive clinical experiences, traineeships, and scholarly projects that address the specific health care needs of rural populations; 3) train, support, and evaluate primary care APN preceptors in rural communities; and 4) identify, implement, and evaluate approaches to connecting APN graduates with employment in rural and underserved communities.
Faculty: Gwen Latendresse (PI); Tek Kilgore; Valerie Flattes; Kimberly Garcia; Katie Ward; Rebecca Wilson; Lisa Gren; Gillian Tufts
Exploring the Impact of Virtual Reality Experience to Increase Empathy and Awareness.
Funding: College of Nursing Excellence in Education
Faculty: Nancy Allen, Julie Gee, Malek Alnajar, Ann Butt, Emily Barrows, Katherine Doyon
Improving CLABSI (central line-associated bloodstream infection) Risk Assessment Among Children with Cancer and those Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Using Machine Learning
Funding: Greater Plains Collaborative
Drs. Gee and Linder submitted their application in response to a call for pilot proposals to strengthen relationships and patient-centered collaborations between investigators at the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare. This project will extend their prior work to reduce bloodstream infections in this distinct patient population, and allow them to explore the complex inter-relationships among individual patient, clinical, and nursing care-related variables that contribute to infection. During the first phase of the project, they will work with an interdisciplinary team, including at least one member of the Cancer/Transplant Family Advisory Council, to develop a comprehensive set of variables that is perceived as contributing to the risk of CLABSI. During phase two, they will map these variables to data available in the PCORnet Common Data Model and the PCH enterprise data warehouse, and use advanced analytics to identify risk factors for infection and potential practice changes. This work will foster a University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare nursing research partnership.
Faculty: Perry Gee, Lauri Linder
Examining Health INequiTies in ImmunE-related adveRSe Events among Cancer paTients: The INTERSECT study
Funding: Flatiron Academic Health Equity Research Grant
The investigators will leverage a national Flatiron Health electronic health record dataset and expand the existing Utah cancer patient population ImmPETUS (Immunotherapy, Palliative, and End-of-Life Treatment Utilization and Spousal Outcomes) dataset to: 1) identify groups of cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors at greatest risk for moderate to severe immune-related adverse events during the last two years of life, and 2) assess the mediating role of immune-related adverse events on the relationship between clinical and social determinants of health and inpatient and emergency department visits during the last two years of life. The overall objective is to characterize the development of immune-related adverse events over time to provide insight into the timing of focused clinical management and supportive care. In addition, the focus on the social and structural drivers of immune-related adverse events outcomes may provide guidance for practice and policies to address inequities.
Faculty: Djin Tay , Jia-Wen Guo
GENIE (Gamified Asynchronous LEarNing of IPE Telehealth)
Funding: Academy of Health Science Educators (AHSE)
Dates: 1/1/2022-12/31/2022
Faculty: Jia-Wen Guo, Sue Chase-Cantarini
Increasing Access to Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support to Deaf and Hard of Hearing People
Funding: Margolis Foundation
Dates: 1/1/2022 – 12/31/2022
The goal of this project is to increase access to diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) in a way that is acceptable to Deaf and hard-of-hearing people. They will adapt, implement, and refine, a time efficient DSMES program delivered via telehealth by a team of multidisciplinary experts that encourages care partner and peer support to improve A1C (a marker for blood sugar levels) and diabetes self-management in Deaf and hard of hearing populations to reduce disparities.
Faculty: Michelle Litchman, Angie Fagerlin, Nancy Allen, Eli Iacob
Virtual Coaching to Maximize Dementia Caregivers’ Respite Time-Use: A Stage 1 Pilot Test for Feasibility and Efficacy
Funding: NIH/NIA (R01AG061946)
Dates: 09/30/2018-05/31/2023
Caregivers to the 5.7 million persons in the United States with Alzheimer’s Disease are susceptible to adverse physical and mental health outcomes, given the often prolonged and challenging care and support they provide to patients in their homes and community. Respite (defined as “time away from caregiving”) is the most often requested service by caregivers. Our project uses a community-engaged design process and a scientifically-rigorous pilot study to evaluate an intervention to coach caregivers on how to maximize the benefits associated with respite time. This type of online-delivered intervention is inherently scalable to real world practice and is expected to help caregivers maintain their overall wellbeing over time, so they can continue providing the estimated 18.4 billion hours of unpaid care with an annual economic value of $232 billion.
Faculty: Rebecca Utz (PI); Michael Caserta; Alexandra Terrill; Bob Wong; Eli Iacob; Louisa Stark
Share plus: Continuous Glucose Monitoring with Data Sharing in Older Adults with T1D and Their Care Partners
Funding: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01 grant)
The purpose of their study is to test an intervention, called Share plus, aimed at improving the use of data sharing between persons with diabetes and their care partners in order to maximize the benefits of continuous glucose monitoring. The Share plus intervention provides instruction to current continuous glucose monitoring users about setting up the data sharing app, strengthening dyadic communication and problem solving, and establishing a data-sharing action plan for older adults with type 1 diabetes and their care partners.
Faculty: Dr. Nancy Allen, Dr. Michelle Litchman, Dr. Cynthia Berg, Dr. Eli Iacob, and Dr. Jonathan Butner
F31 Fellowship: Examining associations between social network characteristics, obesity-related health behaviors, and weight retention among racially/ethnically diverse postpartum women
Funding: NIH National Institute of Nursing Research
This three-year fellowship project will explore the associations between postpartum social networks and diet, activity, and Postpartum weight retention (PPWR) by 1) Quantitatively investigating how diet, activity, and PPWR at 1-year postpartum are associated with structural and functional features of social networks among a sample of racially/ethnically diverse women, 2) Qualitatively exploring mothers’ perceptions about the influence of their social networks on weight-related health behaviors and PPWR, and 3) Triangulating qualitative and quantitative data using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design.
Student: Jacqueline Kent-Marvick
PREVENT – Practice-based Approaches to Promote HPV Vaccination
Funding: The National Cancer Institute R01 Grant
The National Cancer Institute awarded a $666,739 R01 grant to Dr. Deanna Kepka, Kaila Christini, Erin Rothwell, Ben Haaland, David Turok, and Dr. Echo Warner for their study titled PREVENT – Practice-based Approaches to Promote HPV Vaccination.
Faculty: Deanna Kepka, Kaila Christini, Erin Rothwell, Ben Haaland, David Turok, and Echo Warner
Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy and Preventing Cancer Through Adaptive Learning Artificial Intelligence and Refinement of Reminder Interventions and Campaigns
Funding: 1U4U Innovation Funding
Patient reminder and recall (RR) strategies have been proven successful in immunization uptake; however, the effectiveness of these strategies varies by geographic and sociodemographic factors. The current study will be among the first to use state-level vaccination registry data to systematically examine missed opportunities and identify spatial and temporal trends of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. The work will inform creation of an adaptive learning artificial intelligence for refinement of interactive RR strategies and interventions. Solutions arising from this study are scalable, and can be tailored for diverse reminder campaigns, responsive to evolving landscapes, and designed to deliver cost-effective solutions. Both innovative and transformative, this cross-campus collaboration will address complex healthcare problems using precision public health strategies, optimized for decreasing vaccine hesitancy and increasing uptake, and provide preliminary results for high-impact National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute funding proposals.
Faculty: Deanna Kepka, Simon Brewer, Echo Warner, Benjamin Haaland, and Naina Phadnis
Assessment of HPV Vaccine Hesitancy in Utah
Assessment of Adolescent and Young Adult Vaccine Confidence and Missed Opportunities for Vaccination in the Mountain West
Comparing The Efficacy, Cost, Feasibility And Acceptability Of Human Papillomavirus (Hpv) Self-testing To Visual Inspection With Acetic Acid (Via) In Rural Nepal
Funding: Sorenson Legacy Foundation
Dates: 3/1/2021 - 2/28/2023
Cervical cancer is preventable, yet nearly 2000 Nepali women are dying annually from cervical cancer. We aim to find a socio-culturally acceptable, effective, low cost cervical cancer screening method which can be successfully implemented in remote and low resource areas in Nepal.
Faculty: Bernhard Fassl; Deanna Kepka
HIV Needs Assessment and Analysis
Funding: Utah Department of Health
Dates: 01/01/2018-12/31/2022
This project will develop a needs assessment that will assess social, behavioral, and healthcare needs of persons living with HIV in Utah and of persons at high risk for HIV infection in Utah. We will pilot test and refine the assessment based on participant feedback, then assess the socio-demographic characteristics and contextual factors in relation to barriers to care, HIV testing practices, adherence to HIV therapy, viral load levels, and quality of life.
Faculty: Deanna Kepka (PI)
Multi-component Assessment of HPV Vaccine Hesitancy in Utah
Funding: Independent Investigator Award by Merck
The purpose of this 2-year project is to uncover disparities in adolescent HPV vaccination hesitancy among rural and religious communities in Utah. They will elicit community feedback about HPV vaccination, social media use, and religiosity. They will also examine the penetration of HPV vaccination misinformation in selected rural and religious communities. These findings will inform HPV vaccination social media campaign messages that integrate local values and perspectives.
Faculty: Deanna Kepka
#4Corners4Health: A Social Media Cancer Prevention Program for Rural Emerging Adults
Funding: National Cancer Institute subcontract Award
During this 5-year project, their goal is to decrease cancer risk factors among emerging adults aged 18-26 living in rural counties in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah (i.e., "Four Corners" states), using a social media campaign designed with community advisors.
Faculty: Deanna Kepka
Using community-based methods and vaccine registry data to improve HPV vaccination receipt in the era of COVID-19
Funding: Utah Cancer Action Network
Dates: 6/30/2022–6/29/2023
Utah Cancer Action Network is soliciting project proposals that address the priority areas outlined in the 2021-2025 Utah Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control Plan (State Cancer Plan). The plan addresses the following four priority areas: increase food security among Utahns, create healthy neighborhood environments in Utah, improve access to high-quality healthcare services for all Utahns, and reduce financial toxicity among Utah cancer survivors. Successful grant applications will incorporate strategies from the priority areas outlined in the State Cancer Plan.
Faculty: Deanna Kepka
Addressing Barriers to Primary Care Work Force Needs in Rural and Underserved Settings with Academic-Clinical Partnerships and Innovations in Technology
Funding: HRSA, Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Grant Program (T94HP32908)
Dates: 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2023
This project addresses the growing demand for primary care (PC) services in Utah’s rural communities. The overall purpose is to create sustainable academic-clinical partnerships that result in an increase in advance-practice nurse (APN) graduates who are well prepared to deliver high quality primary care in rural Utah communities. The project has four objectives: 1) increase the availability of rural immersive clinical training sites for APN students by strengthening existing academic-clinical partnerships that serve rural communities in Utah; 2) prepare primary care APN students to practice in rural community settings through enhanced didactic education, longitudinal immersive clinical experiences, traineeships, and scholarly projects that address the specific health care needs of rural populations; 3) train, support, and evaluate primary care APN preceptors in rural communities; and 4) identify, implement, and evaluate approaches to connecting APN graduates with employment in rural and underserved communities.
Faculty: Gwen Latendresse (PI); Tek Kilgore; Valerie Flattes; Kimberly Garcia; Katie Ward; Rebecca Wilson; Lisa Gren; Gillian Tufts
Telementalhealth: A Promising Approach to Reducing Perinatal Depression in Utah's Rural & Frontier Communities
Funding: Utah Department of Health
Dates: 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2024
Developing and implementing a telehealth distance platform for the delivery of mental health services can address some of the barriers to assessing care for childbearing women in rural and frontier Utah. Telehealth has begun to revolutionize the delivery of services to address a variety of health care needs, but is just beginning to be explored as a platform for the delivery of maternity and mental health services. All pregnant and postpartum women (up to 1 year after birth) receiving services at any of the collaborating public health clinics will be included in a universal screening program to detect depression during and after pregnancy. Women who screen "positive" for depression will be invited to participate in the telementalhealth program.
Faculty: Gwen Latendresse (PI)
Prevention of Perinatal Depression among at-risk Individuals through Integration of a Multimedia, Web-based Intervention within the Healthcare System
Funding: National Institutes of Nursing Research R01 Grant
During this 3-year project, the team will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of integrating a remote-access perinatal depression prevention program within a healthcare system and embedded in the existing web-based patient portal YoMingo®. For this type 1 hybrid effectiveness-implementation project, they will use the Implementation Research Logic Model to evaluate systems and strategies that link intervention determinants, including sociocultural determinants, with implementation outcomes in Latino, underserved (rural), and urban populations. In addition, they will use a randomized preference trial to assess the impact of patient preference and sociocultural factors – geographic residence, race/ethnicity, significant life events, mental health history, mental health stigma – on participation and preliminary outcomes.
Faculty: Gwen Latendresse
Addressing Barriers to Primary Care Work Force Needs in Rural and Underserved Settings with Academic-Clinical Partnerships and Innovations in Technology
Funding: HRSA, Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Grant Program (T94HP32908)
Dates: 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2023
This project addresses the growing demand for primary care (PC) services in Utah’s rural communities. The overall purpose is to create sustainable academic-clinical partnerships that result in an increase in advance-practice nurse (APN) graduates who are well prepared to deliver high quality primary care in rural Utah communities. The project has four objectives: 1) increase the availability of rural immersive clinical training sites for APN students by strengthening existing academic-clinical partnerships that serve rural communities in Utah; 2) prepare primary care APN students to practice in rural community settings through enhanced didactic education, longitudinal immersive clinical experiences, traineeships, and scholarly projects that address the specific health care needs of rural populations; 3) train, support, and evaluate primary care APN preceptors in rural communities; and 4) identify, implement, and evaluate approaches to connecting APN graduates with employment in rural and underserved communities.
Faculty: Gwen Latendresse (PI); Tek Kilgore; Valerie Flattes; Kimberly Garcia; Katie Ward; Rebecca Wilson; Lisa Gren; Gillian Tufts
A Randomized Controlled Trial using a Heuristic Tool to Improve Symptom Self-Management in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer
Funding: The National Cancer Institute
The purpose of their study is to test the effects of their innovative heuristics-based digital health resource, the Computerized Symptom Capture Tool (C-SCAT), versus usual care on self-efficacy for symptom self-management and symptom self-management behaviors. The investigators also will examine the effects of the C-SCAT versus usual care on symptom severity, symptom distress, social function, and satisfaction with social function immediately post-intervention and at follow-up.
Faculty: Lauri Linder (site PI), Drs. Suzanne Ameringer (PI), Kristin Stegenga, Fiona Macpherson, R. K. Elswick, and Roger Altizer
Improving CLABSI (central line-associated bloodstream infection) Risk Assessment Among Children with Cancer and those Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Using Machine Learning
Funding: Greater Plains Collaborative
Drs. Gee and Linder submitted their application in response to a call for pilot proposals to strengthen relationships and patient-centered collaborations between investigators at the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare. This project will extend their prior work to reduce bloodstream infections in this distinct patient population, and allow them to explore the complex inter-relationships among individual patient, clinical, and nursing care-related variables that contribute to infection. During the first phase of the project, they will work with an interdisciplinary team, including at least one member of the Cancer/Transplant Family Advisory Council, to develop a comprehensive set of variables that is perceived as contributing to the risk of CLABSI. During phase two, they will map these variables to data available in the PCORnet Common Data Model and the PCH enterprise data warehouse, and use advanced analytics to identify risk factors for infection and potential practice changes. This work will foster a University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare nursing research partnership.
Faculty: Perry Gee, Lauri Linder
mHealth Intervention to Support Symptom Communication for Children with Cancer
Funding: The National Cancer Institute
Communication that includes the child’s perspective and can be understood and acted upon by parents and clinicians is key to managing symptoms associated with childhood cancer and its treatment. This project will develop and test an intervention to improve symptom communication during early childhood cancer treatment using Color Me Healthy, a game-based symptom assessment app for children. We will develop and test a clinician-facing version of the app that allows children’s data to be included in the electronic health record to improve communication about children’s symptoms during clinic visits.
Faculty: Lauri Linder
Deaf Diabetes Can Together (DEDICATE): A Pilot Study
Funding: American Diabetes Association
The overarching goal is to increase access of the Deaf or hard of hearing populations (DHH) to diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES), and reduce disparities related to language access justice. The objective is to deliver a DSMES program that linguistically, culturally, and geographically meets the needs of DHH populations living in the United States.
Faculty: Michelle Litchman
Development of a Diabetes Training for ASL Interpreters
Funding: Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists Foundation
Dates: 6/7/2022-6/30/2023
During the upcoming year, these faculty will develop and deliver diabetes training to American Sign Language interpreters to better equip them when translating for diabetes care and education specialists.
Faculty: Michelle Litchman
Adaptation and Pilot Testing of Deaf-Diabetes
Adaptation and Refinement of a Multi-Modal Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support Program for Deaf Care Partners
Emerging Adults with Type 1 Diabetes Social Support Needs Research
Funding: The Clark and Christine Ivory Foundation & Franklin S. and Rachael C. Ivory
Dates: 1/1/2022-12/31/2023
Faculty: Michelle Litchman
Increasing Access to Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support to Deaf and Hard of Hearing People
Funding: Margolis Foundation
Dates: 1/1/2022 – 12/31/2022
The goal of this project is to increase access to diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) in a way that is acceptable to Deaf and hard-of-hearing people. They will adapt, implement, and refine, a time efficient DSMES program delivered via telehealth by a team of multidisciplinary experts that encourages care partner and peer support to improve A1C (a marker for blood sugar levels) and diabetes self-management in Deaf and hard of hearing populations to reduce disparities.
Faculty: Michelle Litchman, Angie Fagerlin, Nancy Allen, Eli Iacob
Improving Access to Diabetes Education and Care for Deaf Populations
Funding: University of California, Davis
Dates: 7/1/2021 – 6/30/2024
Dr. Michelle Litchman is one of ten nurse scientists accepted to the second cohort of the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators. Led by Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, the three-year fellowship recognizes early- to mid-career nursing scholars and innovators with a high potential to accelerate leadership in nursing research, practice, education, policy and entrepreneurship. Fellows receive $450,000 to conduct an innovative project or study with the potential to address a gap in knowledge, meet a vital need, alter care delivery, or design a new solution to advance health. Michelle’s project is titled Improving Access to Diabetes Education and Care for Deaf Populations, and will involve co-designing a deaf accessible diabetes one-day program, and testing it with a national sample of deaf and hard of hearing people living with diabetes.
Faculty: Michelle Litchman
Share plus: Continuous Glucose Monitoring with Data Sharing in Older Adults with T1D and Their Care Partners
Funding: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01 grant)
The purpose of their study is to test an intervention, called Share plus, aimed at improving the use of data sharing between persons with diabetes and their care partners in order to maximize the benefits of continuous glucose monitoring. The Share plus intervention provides instruction to current continuous glucose monitoring users about setting up the data sharing app, strengthening dyadic communication and problem solving, and establishing a data-sharing action plan for older adults with type 1 diabetes and their care partners.
Faculty: Dr. Nancy Allen, Dr. Michelle Litchman, Dr. Cynthia Berg, Dr. Eli Iacob, and Dr. Jonathan Butner
The Changing Landscape: HDV Reflex Testing and Linkage to Care in the Utah Population
Funding: The Changing Landscape: HDV Reflex Testing and Linkage to Care in the Utah Population
They will assess the prevalence of hepatitis delta in Utah.
Faculty: Keisa Lynch and Melodie Weller
University of California Global Health Institute Program for Fellows and Scholars
University of California Global Health Institute Program for Fellows and Scholars
Funding: University of California, San Francisco/John E. Fogarty International Center
Dates: 12/1/2021-11/30/2022
Faculty: Schola Matovu
Remote Monitoring and Management of Myasthenia Gravis (REMOTE-MG): A Pilot Feasibility Study UVMMG Innovations in Clinical Care Research Program
Funding: University of Vermont Medical Center
Dates: 1/1/2022 – 12/31/2022
The goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and utility of a novel Myasthenia Gravis (MG) monitoring system by evaluating the feasibility of collecting MG specific remote monitoring information weekly from autoimmune MG patients utilizing the SCH system and of transferring this data to medical providers for 2 months; and assessing patient and medical provider opinions on the clinical utility of this SCH and its data.
Faculty: Kathi Mooney, Noah Kolb, Amanda Guidon
Remote Monitoring and Management of Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (REMOTE- CIPN)
Funding: University of Vermont/NIH NCI
Dates: 5/6/2021 – 4/30/2026
This is a prospective randomized trial designed to investigate a new care model for patients who suffer from nerve damage from chemotherapy called chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). All participants in the study will report their CIPN symptoms daily using a website, app or phone for 12 weeks. In one group the data will be collected and participants will be encouraged to reach out to their treating doctors for uncontrolled symptoms. These participants' doctors can prescribe any treatment they feel is appropriate. In the second group, if the symptoms are moderate to severe they will receive a phone call from a nurse practitioner immediately. That nurse practitioner will determine the correct CIPN treatment using a algorithm and prescribe it. The study will track the severity of symptoms over time as well as looking at the impact on treatments for CIPN (medications and referrals).
Faculty: Kathleen Mooney
Huntsman at Home- A nursing driven model of care for rural dwelling cancer patients and their families
Interdisciplinary Training in Cancer, Caregiving and End-of-Life Care
Funding: NIH/NINR (T32NR013456)
Dates: 7/1/2018-6/30/2023
The number of patients with chronic and life-limiting illnesses, like cancer, and their family caregivers are increasing, and their health and psychosocial needs are having a profound impact on health services. Our NIH-funded training program is shaping the next generation of scientists to provide evidence on how to best help patients and families sustain health and well-being, foster patient and family engagement, manage symptoms associated with chronic disease, and die free of pain and family burden. This program will support eight pre-doctoral and eight post-doctoral trainees.
Faculty: Lee Ellington (Co-PIs); Kathi Mooney (Co-PIs)
Broadening the Impact of Symptom Care at Home through EHR Integration and Implementation Science
Funding: DHI Grant
They will integrate Symptom Care at Home into the electronic health record, and collaborate with Drs. J.D. Smith, Ken Kawamoto, and Guilherme Del Fiol.
Faculty: Kathi Mooney, Elizabeth Sloss
The Impact of Multi-level Social Determinants of Health Outcomes for Lung Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers During the Transition from Cancer Treatment
Funding: The Oncology Nursing Society
Faculty: Faculty: Dr. Sumin Park, Andrea Wallace , Alycia Bristol
Siblings as Caregivers: Exploring Support Provided by Siblings for Children with Chronic Illnesses
Funding: The Consortium for Families and Health Research (C-FAHR)
The team will conduct a mixed-methods study to investigate how siblings of children with chronic illnesses are engaged in the caregiving process. The study will help lay the groundwork for future studies supporting children with complex medical needs.
Faculty: Christine Platt
Advanced Practice Clinical Palliative Care Fellowship: A Leading Edge Program Responding to Workforce Demands, Underserved Populations, and Rural and Behavioral Health Needs
Funding: Cambia Health Foundation Grant
The goal of this 3-year project is to develop an Advanced Practice Clinical Palliative Care Fellowship, the first such program in the West, and support three fellows at the University of Utah.
Faculty: Lynn Reinke
Advancing Understanding of Racism-related Health Disparities Beginning before Birth: A Multisite Study with Black and Latina Pregnant Women
Funding: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Grant
During this 5-year, multi-site, and longitudinal study, the investigators will aim to advance understanding of racism-related health disparities as well as modifiable stress-buffering factors in pregnant Black and Latina women and infants.
Faculty: Ana Sanchez-Birkhead
Addressing a GAP in MENOpausal Latinas’ Healthcare: Adapting MENOGAP for Community Health Worker Delivery in Hispanic/Latinx Communities
Funding: 1U4U Innovation Funding
Building upon Ms. Villalta and Drs. Taylor-Swanson and Moreno’s ongoing work to create an integrative group medical visit intervention (MENOGAP) for peri/menopausal women, the purpose of the study is to adapt a provider-delivered MENOGAP to a community health worker-delivered intervention in Spanish for Latinas. This work is greatly needed because research on racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare access and utilization consistently identifies Hispanic/Latinx as one of the most disadvantaged ethnic groups. Concerning midlife women, Latinx women enter menopause earlier and have longer-lasting and more intense symptoms than white women. A 2022 study proposed that some health disparities experienced by Latinx women are likely attributable to structural racism in the United States. The team aims to reduce these disparities for Latinas in Utah, and with time, outside the state as well.
Faculty: Lisa Taylor-Swanson, Ana Sanchez-Birkhead, Camille Moreno, Isabel Dulfano, and Jeannette Villalta
Our Patients as Our Teachers
Funding: Teaching Innovation Team (TITe) Intramural Grant
The team will design, implement, and evaluate formative simulation training, including synchronous and asynchronous learning components, to 1) build nursing student competencies in addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) in clinical settings, and 2) identify gaps in current undergraduate and graduate curricula regarding nurses’ preparation for assessing and addressing patient-client SDOH in clinical settings. Students also will learn the value of psychological safety in therapeutic relationships, and factors that may be unique or magnified in underserved settings. The results will help faculty understand how students identify, educate, and advocate for patients with social needs and highlight current gaps in curricula, promote a stronger practice of health humanism, and provide information about SDOH education that can be leveraged within and beyond the College of Nursing.
Faculty: Shawna Sisler
Broadening the Impact of Symptom Care at Home through EHR Integration and Implementation Science
Funding: DHI Grant
They will integrate Symptom Care at Home into the electronic health record, and collaborate with Drs. J.D. Smith, Ken Kawamoto, and Guilherme Del Fiol.
Faculty: Kathi Mooney, Elizabeth Sloss
Predicting end-of-life among patients with advanced cancer to support shared decision-making
Funding: Hitachi, Ltd
Faculty: Catherine Staes
Pre-Loss Group Therapy for Dementia Family CPs at Risk for CG
HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) ERN (Effectiveness Research Network): Data Coordinating Resource Center
Funding: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Grant
This multi-year project will encompass multiple studies. During year one, researchers will focus on the Optimizing the Use of Ketamine to Reduce Chronic Postsurgical Pain (KALPAS) study, examining the use of ketamine in the immediate post-operative period after mastectomy for breast cancer.
Faculty: Katherine Sward
A Real-World Examination of Health INequiTies in ImmunE-related adveRSe Events among Cancer paTients: The INTERSECT study
Funding: American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant
Dr. Tay will 1) Assess the moderating role of minoritized race on the relationship between anxiety and depression, and immune-related adverse events (IrAE) treatment discontinuation, and 2) assess the mediating role of insurance type on the relationship between anxiety and depression, and IrAE-related treatment discontinuation. This research will further understanding of drivers of inequities in health outcomes among patients receiving immunotherapy, and has implications to guide practice and policies to support equitable survivorship and palliative care delivery.
Faculty: Djin Tay
Examining Health INequiTies in ImmunE-related adveRSe Events among Cancer paTients: The INTERSECT study
Funding: Flatiron Academic Health Equity Research Grant
The investigators will leverage a national Flatiron Health electronic health record dataset and expand the existing Utah cancer patient population ImmPETUS (Immunotherapy, Palliative, and End-of-Life Treatment Utilization and Spousal Outcomes) dataset to: 1) identify groups of cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors at greatest risk for moderate to severe immune-related adverse events during the last two years of life, and 2) assess the mediating role of immune-related adverse events on the relationship between clinical and social determinants of health and inpatient and emergency department visits during the last two years of life. The overall objective is to characterize the development of immune-related adverse events over time to provide insight into the timing of focused clinical management and supportive care. In addition, the focus on the social and structural drivers of immune-related adverse events outcomes may provide guidance for practice and policies to address inequities.
Faculty: Djin Tay , Jia-Wen Guo
Examining the Role of Palliative Care among Immunotherapy Cancer Patients and their Care Partners using a Multi-Method Approach
Funding: Huntsman Cancer Institute Supportive Oncology and Survivorship Center
Dates: 4/1/2022-4/1/2023
Faculty: Djin Tay
Building an Academic Long-Term Care System Coalition to Improve Palliative Care
Funding: The National Institute on Aging Imbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), AD-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory
The National Institute on Aging Imbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory announced Dr. Gail Towsley as a 2023 Health Care Systems (HCS) Scholars Program awardee. The HCS Scholars program offers investigators an opportunity to partner with HCS to develop embedded pragmatic clinical trials focused on improving the care provided to persons living with dementia, and their care partners. Dr. Towsley will receive $120,000 for her study titled Building an Academic Long-Term Care System Coalition to Improve Palliative Care. She will partner with Nexion Health to nurture a meaningful collaboration that blends research and clinical care expertise to better understand how palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care is implemented in the long-term care system. Together, they will learn what needs to be done to conduct an embedded pragmatic clinical trial. Using community engagement approaches, they will identify 1) key details of how the HCS currently provides palliative and EOL care for people living with dementia, 2) essential elements of how the HCS would implement a new process, 3) outcomes that are important to all levels of the HCS related to palliative and EOL care, including how they are or can be integrated into the electronic health record, and 4) relevant data available via the Long-Term Care Data Cooperative.
Faculty: Gail Towsley
Addressing a GAP in MENOpausal Latinas’ Healthcare: Adapting MENOGAP for Community Health Worker Delivery in Hispanic/Latinx Communities
Funding: 1U4U Innovation Funding
Building upon Ms. Villalta and Drs. Taylor-Swanson and Moreno’s ongoing work to create an integrative group medical visit intervention (MENOGAP) for peri/menopausal women, the purpose of the study is to adapt a provider-delivered MENOGAP to a community health worker-delivered intervention in Spanish for Latinas. This work is greatly needed because research on racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare access and utilization consistently identifies Hispanic/Latinx as one of the most disadvantaged ethnic groups. Concerning midlife women, Latinx women enter menopause earlier and have longer-lasting and more intense symptoms than white women. A 2022 study proposed that some health disparities experienced by Latinx women are likely attributable to structural racism in the United States. The team aims to reduce these disparities for Latinas in Utah, and with time, outside the state as well.
Faculty: Lisa Taylor-Swanson, Ana Sanchez-Birkhead, Camille Moreno, Isabel Dulfano, and Jeannette Villalta
Addressing Barriers to Primary Care Work Force Needs in Rural and Underserved Settings with Academic-Clinical Partnerships and Innovations in Technology
Funding: HRSA, Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Grant Program (T94HP32908)
Dates: 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2023
This project addresses the growing demand for primary care (PC) services in Utah’s rural communities. The overall purpose is to create sustainable academic-clinical partnerships that result in an increase in advance-practice nurse (APN) graduates who are well prepared to deliver high quality primary care in rural Utah communities. The project has four objectives: 1) increase the availability of rural immersive clinical training sites for APN students by strengthening existing academic-clinical partnerships that serve rural communities in Utah; 2) prepare primary care APN students to practice in rural community settings through enhanced didactic education, longitudinal immersive clinical experiences, traineeships, and scholarly projects that address the specific health care needs of rural populations; 3) train, support, and evaluate primary care APN preceptors in rural communities; and 4) identify, implement, and evaluate approaches to connecting APN graduates with employment in rural and underserved communities.
Faculty: Gwen Latendresse (PI); Tek Kilgore; Valerie Flattes; Kimberly Garcia; Katie Ward; Rebecca Wilson; Lisa Gren; Gillian Tufts
Toward trauma-informed care in dentistry: An evaluation of the impact of trauma on use and provision of dental care services.
Funding: The Vice-President for Research Incentive Seed Grant Program
Awarded a 1-year, $27,022 research grant, Dr. Valentine and Co-Investigator Dr. Brenda Heaton will explore the connection of trauma history in predominantly low-income/marginalized populations and survivors of sexual or gender-based violence with dental-related fear and utilization of dental care services. In addition, they will evaluate how the dental care workforce understands and applies trauma-informed care. After Drs. Valentine and Heaton merge findings from these distinct participant groups, they will design and conduct further research to develop best practice guidelines for trauma-informed care in dentistry.
Faculty: Julie Valentine, Brenda Heaton
Implementing a Novel Consent Process for Biospecimen Research after Newborn Screening in Hospitals Serving Diverse Patients
Funding: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R01 Grant
The investigators will identify determinants, strategies, mechanisms, barriers, and facilitators of consenting quality across hospitals serving diverse and underserved populations for the retention and research use of residual dried bloodspots for the Michigan Biotrust for Health; engage members of underrepresented and non-English speaking communities in Michigan to support implementation of an electronic informed consent intervention (EICI) in diverse hospital settings, and implement and evaluate the EICI consent approach within four major hospitals across the state of Michigan that serve underrepresented persons, Spanish and Arabic speaking participants, and the general population.
Faculty: Andrea Wallace
Uncovering Caregiver Discharge Readiness for Patient Care Transitions from Hospital to Home: The UCare Study
Funding: Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) R01 Grant
During this 3-year study, their goal is to develop and test a measure that captures the unique factors important to caregivers’ feelings of readiness to engage in caregiving upon discharge from the hospital. Using a mixed-methods approach, the specific aims of this study are to 1) develop a theoretically grounded and psychometrically sound caregiver hospital discharge readiness scale (FamRHDS-R); 2) establish the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the FamRHDS-R; and 3) establish whether and how the FamRHDS-R is associated with a range of caregiver and patient outcomes.
Faculty: Andrea Wallace , Alycia Bristol
Intensifying Community Referrals for Health: The SINCERE Intervention to Address COVID -19 Health Disparities
Funding: NIH/NINR
Dates: 5/14/2021 - 3/31/2025
This real-world efficacy study (NIH stage 3) will determine the benefit of social needs (e.g., housing, food, and transportation) screening, community-based service referrals, and telephonic follow-up as a scalable, sustainable strategy for preventing COVID-19 transmission, and for addressing the secondary health effects of the social, behavioral, and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of this study will provide much needed information regarding whether social needs screening and community service referrals improve health outcomes of vulnerable and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, an NIH-designated health disparity population, and whether intensive follow-up and collaborative goal- setting help overcome barriers to community service use by patients who are seen in the emergency department and seek COVID testing at community-based and mobile clinic locations.
Faculty: Andrea Wallace
Electronic health record integration of the Going Home Toolkit, a patient-centered digital resource planner/application to assist with the social needs of patients during hospital to home transitions
Funding: DHI Grant
Dr. Andrea Wallace was awarded a Digital Health Initiative Inspiring Digital Health Innovations Seed Grant for work on electronic health record integration of the Going Home Toolkit, a patient-centered digital resource planner/application to assist with the social needs of patients during hospital to home transitions. To accomplish the work, Dr. Wallace will partner with the Digital Health Initiative team, the Therapeutic Games and Apps (GApp) Lab, and Ken Kawamoto.
Faculty: Andrea Wallace
Addressing Barriers to Primary Care Work Force Needs in Rural and Underserved Settings with Academic-Clinical Partnerships and Innovations in Technology
Funding: HRSA, Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Grant Program (T94HP32908)
Dates: 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2023
This project addresses the growing demand for primary care (PC) services in Utah’s rural communities. The overall purpose is to create sustainable academic-clinical partnerships that result in an increase in advance-practice nurse (APN) graduates who are well prepared to deliver high quality primary care in rural Utah communities. The project has four objectives: 1) increase the availability of rural immersive clinical training sites for APN students by strengthening existing academic-clinical partnerships that serve rural communities in Utah; 2) prepare primary care APN students to practice in rural community settings through enhanced didactic education, longitudinal immersive clinical experiences, traineeships, and scholarly projects that address the specific health care needs of rural populations; 3) train, support, and evaluate primary care APN preceptors in rural communities; and 4) identify, implement, and evaluate approaches to connecting APN graduates with employment in rural and underserved communities.
Faculty: Gwen Latendresse (PI); Tek Kilgore; Valerie Flattes; Kimberly Garcia; Katie Ward; Rebecca Wilson; Lisa Gren; Gillian Tufts
Cancer misinformation exposure measurement among cancer patients
Funding: Huntsman Cancer Institute
This project will test automated website monitoring tools to document and record patient exposure to cancer misinformation. This will make it possible to accurately measure exposure using our existing Artificial Intelligence prototype to reduce the impact of cancer misinformation on cancer patients can be tested in a future randomized trial.
Faculty: Echo Warner
Online Cancer Misinformation (ONC-M) Framework Face Validity Testing
Funding: College of Nursing and the Vice President for Research Office
The team will focus on validity testing of two important tools for cancer misinformation research among the general population. Their first aim is to validate a measure of online cancer misinformation susceptibility, and identify predictors of an individual’s ability to identify cancer (mis)information through an online survey. With a subset of survey respondents, the second aim is to evaluate the face validity of the ONC-M conceptual framework, which they previously developed, to explain the process by which online cancer misinformation influences health behaviors and decision-making. This work will advance Dr. Warner’s program of research by 1) contributing methodological rigor and reproducibility of measuring cancer misinformation susceptibility, and 2) enhancing the representativeness of the ONC-M framework for informing future cancer misinformation mitigation interventions.
Faculty: Echo Warner, Jaehee Yi
Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy and Preventing Cancer Through Adaptive Learning Artificial Intelligence and Refinement of Reminder Interventions and Campaigns
Funding: 1U4U Innovation Funding
Patient reminder and recall (RR) strategies have been proven successful in immunization uptake; however, the effectiveness of these strategies varies by geographic and sociodemographic factors. The current study will be among the first to use state-level vaccination registry data to systematically examine missed opportunities and identify spatial and temporal trends of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. The work will inform creation of an adaptive learning artificial intelligence for refinement of interactive RR strategies and interventions. Solutions arising from this study are scalable, and can be tailored for diverse reminder campaigns, responsive to evolving landscapes, and designed to deliver cost-effective solutions. Both innovative and transformative, this cross-campus collaboration will address complex healthcare problems using precision public health strategies, optimized for decreasing vaccine hesitancy and increasing uptake, and provide preliminary results for high-impact National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute funding proposals.
Faculty: Deanna Kepka, Simon Brewer, Echo Warner, Benjamin Haaland, and Naina Phadnis
PREVENT – Practice-based Approaches to Promote HPV Vaccination
Funding: The National Cancer Institute R01 Grant
The National Cancer Institute awarded a $666,739 R01 grant to Dr. Deanna Kepka, Kaila Christini, Erin Rothwell, Ben Haaland, David Turok, and Dr. Echo Warner for their study titled PREVENT – Practice-based Approaches to Promote HPV Vaccination.
Faculty: Deanna Kepka, Kaila Christini, Erin Rothwell, Ben Haaland, David Turok, and Echo Warner
Addressing Barriers to Primary Care Work Force Needs in Rural and Underserved Settings with Academic-Clinical Partnerships and Innovations in Technology
Funding: HRSA, Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Grant Program (T94HP32908)
Dates: 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2023
This project addresses the growing demand for primary care (PC) services in Utah’s rural communities. The overall purpose is to create sustainable academic-clinical partnerships that result in an increase in advance-practice nurse (APN) graduates who are well prepared to deliver high quality primary care in rural Utah communities. The project has four objectives: 1) increase the availability of rural immersive clinical training sites for APN students by strengthening existing academic-clinical partnerships that serve rural communities in Utah; 2) prepare primary care APN students to practice in rural community settings through enhanced didactic education, longitudinal immersive clinical experiences, traineeships, and scholarly projects that address the specific health care needs of rural populations; 3) train, support, and evaluate primary care APN preceptors in rural communities; and 4) identify, implement, and evaluate approaches to connecting APN graduates with employment in rural and underserved communities.
Faculty: Gwen Latendresse (PI); Tek Kilgore; Valerie Flattes; Kimberly Garcia; Katie Ward; Rebecca Wilson; Lisa Gren; Gillian Tufts
Reconfiguring the Patient Room as a Fall Protection Strategy to Increase Patient Stability during Ambulation
Funding: AHRQ (R18HS025606)
Dates: 09/30/2018-09/29/2023
Despite decades of research into patient falls, falls and the injuries incurred continue to be a serious threat to patient safety. Fall rates continue to be unacceptably high. The purpose of this project is to increase the safety of a hospital room for patient mobility, using innovative simulation strategies and patient-centric design. An innovative simulation environment will be built to enable rapid assessment of room layout and fixture positioning and patient stability. The results from multiple simulations will be used to fabricate a prototype room layout that will be tested by patients with Parkinson disease and reviewed and updated with input from other relevant stakeholders. A final room prototype will be built and tested. Results will be translated and shared with all stakeholders and disseminated for implementation.
Faculty: Janice Morse (Co-PI); Andrew Merryweather (Co-PI); Bob Wong; Bo Foreman
Virtual Coaching to Maximize Dementia Caregivers’ Respite Time-Use: A Stage 1 Pilot Test for Feasibility and Efficacy
Funding: NIH/NIA (R01AG061946)
Dates: 09/30/2018-05/31/2023
Caregivers to the 5.7 million persons in the United States with Alzheimer’s Disease are susceptible to adverse physical and mental health outcomes, given the often prolonged and challenging care and support they provide to patients in their homes and community. Respite (defined as “time away from caregiving”) is the most often requested service by caregivers. Our project uses a community-engaged design process and a scientifically-rigorous pilot study to evaluate an intervention to coach caregivers on how to maximize the benefits associated with respite time. This type of online-delivered intervention is inherently scalable to real world practice and is expected to help caregivers maintain their overall wellbeing over time, so they can continue providing the estimated 18.4 billion hours of unpaid care with an annual economic value of $232 billion.
Faculty: Rebecca Utz (PI); Michael Caserta; Alexandra Terrill; Bob Wong; Eli Iacob; Louisa Stark
Understand and Predict the Severe Drought Events in the Western United States and their Influence on Water Resources and Human Health
Funding: 1U4U Innovation Funding
The investigators aim to better understand and predict severe drought events in the western United States and their impacts on water resources and human health, especially in Northern Utah. Seeking collaborations from climate, hydrological, ecosystem, and health science, the team’s objectives are to 1) develop improved drought metrics based on the historical records and current conditions of the atmosphere, land, and plant available water for an effective drought prediction method; and 2) assess the drought impacts on human health, such as lung health of toxic dust caused by a drought in Great Salt Lake. The ultimate goal is to provide effective drought prediction methods for the Western United States and identify significant issues, thus making suggestions for essential decision-making.
Faculty: Zhaoxia Pu, Xiaoming Sheng, Paul Brooks