Office of Minority Health and Research

NIH Stroke Intervention Program at Morehouse

As part of its goal to counter the high occurrence of stroke in the medically under-served populations, the Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration with Morehouse School of Medicine, is introducing a program to identify racial and geographical disparities related to stroke and cerebrovascular disease. The new program, called SPIRP (Stroke Prevention/Intervention Research Program), will also establish prevention/intervention programs aimed at reducing or eliminating these disparities.

The stroke intervention program is being funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR).

The 6-year grant includes a 2-year infrastructure development and planning phase, with the project unfolding over the next 4 years. The SPIRP currently has four major program components.

• An administrative core will direct, coordinate, and evaluate the overall program related to the SPIRP and serve as a regional resource in stroke education and intervention.
• A community interaction core will develop research programs that can conduct population-based community studies of risk factors, prevention, incidence, prevalence, natural history, treatment, and rehabilitation of cerebrovascular disease in the African American community.
• Training for stroke investigators and community and primary health care providers, including the development of a clinical stroke program at Morehouse and at two local teaching hospitals, will be centered in the program's development core.
• The program's database core will develop an integrated database that will be used to track stroke occurrence and/or recurrence, stroke outcome, and patient adherence to education.

The SPIRP is the first clinically oriented intervention program that is directed at health disparities to be allied with the Specialized Neuroscience Research Programs at Minority Institutions initiative. This initiative, which forms a network of center grant programs funded by the NIH, allows minority institutions to build or enhance their neuroscience infrastructure and research facilities, to develop additional neuroscience educational programs, and to strengthen the research capabilities of faculty and students.

The new stroke program will include investigators from Morehouse School of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Emory University, local county health departments, and community organizations.

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