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Child Health Extramural Research by State and Country

Tennessee

Principal Investigator: Carroll, Kecia N.
Title: Population-Based Screening for Hypothyroidism in Children with Down Syndrome
Institution: Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Nashville, TN
E-mail: kecia.carroll@vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 07/13/05-12/31/05
Project No.: HHSP233200500492P
Summary: This project will determine the proportion of children with Down syndrome who are being screened for hypothyroidism, a sequelae of Down Syndrome. Children will be identified from a state public insurance plan database with data from 1995-2003.

Principal Investigator: Cooper, William O.
Title: Medicaid MCOs and Suboptimal Pediatric Care
Institution: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
E-mail: william.cooper@mcmail.vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 08/15/03-07/31/06
Project No.: K02 HS13076
Summary: The aim of this Independent Scientist Award is to examine the effect of Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) on access to specific recommended care for children with asthma, as individual MCOs may have conflicting incentives for authorizing care or providing resources for care. The study will compare MCOs with respect to suboptimal use of preventive medications for asthma among approximately 24,000 black, Hispanic and other children with moderate to severe asthma in Washington State and Tennessee. The study will be conducted using a Medicaid research database, linked with vital records and U.S. Census data in Washington State and Tennessee.

Principal Investigator: Cooper, William O.
Title: TennCare Gaps for Children: Asthma Clinical Outcomes
Institution: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
E-mail: william.cooper@mcmail.vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 09/01/00-02/28/02
Project No.: R01 HS10249
Summary: This study seeks to quantify the effect of gaps in Medical enrollment on two outcomes relevant to children with asthma: emergency department visits and hospitalization for asthma.

Principal Investigator: Dittus, Robert S.
Title: The Center for Improving Patient Safety (CIPS)
Institution: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
E-mail: robert.dittus@vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 09/01/01-08/31/04
Project No.: P20 HS11563
Summary: The aim of this project is to create a CIPS to study medical error awareness and experiences within racial and ethnic minority populations focusing on various settings, levels of care and medical specialties. One pilot study will use aggregated risk management incident reports to detect, prevent and treat common causes of medical errors and near misses in selected medical care settings, including general pediatrics, cardiology, emergency medicine and radiology.

Principal Investigator: Frisse, Mark E.
Title: State and Regional Demonstrations in Health Information Technology*
Institution: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
E-mail: mark.frisse@vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 09/30/04-09/29/09
Project No.: 290-04-0006
Summary: This project will plan, implement, and evaluate a State-based regional data sharing and interoperatibility service interconnecting the health care entities in three counties including needs assessment for healthcare improvement and reforming TennCare.

Principal Investigator: Higgins, Michael
Title: Improving the Quality and Safety of Regional Surgical Patient Care Through the Creation of a Multi-Institutional Partnership for the Implementation and Support of Perioperative Informatics Tools
Institution: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
E-mail: mike.higgins@vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 09/30/04-09/29/05
Project No.: P20 HS015401
Summary: This project will create a plan for development, implementation, and support of informatics tools in regional health centers to improve the safety of surgical patient care in the mid-South. The tools include creating a registry of patients that details surgical risks; a preoperative evaluation resource containing the medical history relevant to planning perioperative care; a performance benchmarking resource to support collaborative quality improvement efforts; and point-of-care prompts designed to reduce errors in the patient care process. Minorities, women, children and the elderly will be represented in this study.

Principal Investigator: Johnson, Kevin B.
Title: Computer-Based Documentation and Provider Interaction
Institution: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
E-mail: kevin.b.johnson@vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 09/30/99-09/29/00
Project No.: R03 HS10363
Summary: This focused research project seeks to evaluate how physician use of computer-based documentation (CBD) affects the quality of the clinical encounter in pediatric health-maintenance visits at the Harriet Lane Primary Care Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The study uses a pre-post design to compare encounters audio-taped before and after CBD was implemented in 1997. Additional data on satisfaction have been collected through exit surveys of both providers and patients. The computer-based patient record (CPR) and data from the residency program provide data on cost coverage, the patient's previous visits, and the provider's age, gender, years of training, and past experience with the computer program. The primary outcome variables are the content of the encounter as measured by the Roter Interactional Analysis System (RIAS), which will be compared before and after the intervention. These measures of the quality of the encounter include the number of psychosocial and anticipatory guidance issues addressed (or not acknowledged) during the visit and the number of supportive or reassuring statements given. Additional outcome variables include the duration of the encounter and the parent and provider satisfaction with the encounter.

Principal Investigator: Johnson, Kevin B.
Title: Impact of Electronic Prescribing on Medication Errors in Ambulatory Pediatrics
Institution: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
E-mail: kevin.b.johnson@vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 09/18/01-08/31/04
Project No.: R18 HS11868
Summary: The aims of this study are to assess the baseline medication error rate in an urban pediatric emergency department and clinic; to compare handheld implements for electronic prescription writing; and to determine the effect that electronic prescribing has on medication error rates and prescribing practices.

Principal Investigator: Lozzio, Carmen
Title: Improving Quality Care for Children With Special Needs
Institution: University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Knoxville, TN
E-mail: clozzio@mc.utmck.edu
Project Dates: 09/30/04-09/29/05
Project No.: P20 HS015426
Summary: This study will develop a database to include diagnosis, health records, and educational information on children with special health care needs in the Tennessee Child Health Profile (a HIT system for infants identified by the State Newborn Screening and Newborn Health Screening groups), especially those with genetic conditions and developmental disabilities. Low-income, minority children will be included in this study.

Principal Investigator: Lozzio, Carmen
Title: Improving Quality Care for Children With Special Needs: Statewide Implementation
Institution: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
E-mail: clozzio@mc.utmck.edu
Project Dates: 09/30/05-09/28/08
Project No.: UC1 HS016133
Summary: This study will develop the Health Information Technology (HIT) infrastructure in Tennessee to promote and improve the safety and quality of health care for children with special health care needs (CSHCN), and will develop an electronic health record called the "child health profile"(CHP) for infants with disorders detected by the state newborn screening and newborn hearing programs. Additionally, the project will expand the CHP to include children with other genetic disorders and developmental disabilities diagnosed at the major genetic and child development centers in the state. This project will include Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaskan, Asian, and African-American children.

Principal Investigator: Ray, Wayne
Title: Vanderbilt Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics
Institution: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
E-mail: wayne.ray@mcmail.vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 09/30/99-09/29/02
Project No.: U18 HS10384
Summary: The goal of the Vanderbilt Center for Education/Research on Therapeutics (CERT) project is to improve pharmacotherapy by combating 3 specific threats to rational pharmacotherapy: inadequate knowledge base, sub-optimal provider or patient behavior, and counter productive policies.

Principal Investigator: Shenep, Jerry
Title: Risk Analysis of Pediatric Chemotherapy Processes
Institution: St. Jude Children's Hospital, Memphis, TN
E-mail: jerry.shenep@stjude.org
Project Dates: 09/30/03-09/29/04
Project No.: UCl HS14295
Summary: The aims of this study are to: conduct a formal risk analysis using a failure mode and effects analysis; evaluate and document the risks associated with each step of a complex chemotherapy medications process for possible failure points before and after testing of a commercially available highly integrated computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system at a leading children's cancer center; evaluate and test approaches to eliminate identified risks. Before implementing CPOE system in complex treatment areas such as pediatric oncology, all aspects of the medications process require careful analysis to ensure that the risk of error actually will be reduced.

Principal Investigator: Speroff, Theodore
Title: Safe Critical Care: Testing Improvement Strategies*
Institution: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN
E-mail: ted.speroff@vanderbilt.edu
Project Dates: 07/01/05-06/30/07
Project No.: U18 HS15934
Summary: This project will implement a campaign for improving critical care as part of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) 100,000 Lives Campaign across 147 medical/surgical and five children's hospitals of the Hospital Corporation of America, and will develop toolkits for reducing blood-stream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Researchers also will conduct a randomized controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of a collaborative versus campaign and toolkit strategy for implementing an improvement initiative, and they will examine the organizational and provider factors that contribute toward and enable successful performance improvement. This study will include patients of all ages, both genders, and all racial/ethnic minority populations.


*Project includes children or children's health care issues but does not focus exclusively on children.


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