Lisa Cooper, professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, and her research team, have been selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to receive a $12.2 million research award, which will be funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) through a partnership with NIH.
Cooper, a nationally recognized leader in research to eliminate health disparities, will use the award in a study to compare ways to improve blood pressure control in specific populations at risk for health disparities related to high blood pressure and to close the gaps in health outcomes experienced by these groups.
The study will focus on racial/ethnic minorities, low-income individuals and rural and urban residents across Maryland. It will compare clinic-based primary care to a collaborative, stepped approach to care. In the stepped approach, patients first interact with a multidisciplinary team of health professionals in the clinic and then, if their blood pressure control does not improve, with a community health worker and/or a subspecialist, such as a cardiologist or behavioral health specialist. The trial aims to recruit around 1,890 patient participants.
The research team includes investigators from medicine and nursing and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, including Jill Marsteller, associate professor of health policy and management, who is co-leading the study with Cooper.
For more information about PCORI, visit: www.pcori.org
