Research Project
10241542
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT As a predominantly rural state, Kentucky leads the nation in many pediatric and adult chronic and environmentally-related diseases and ?ranks nationally? in low educational achievement. These adverse factors combine to make Kentuckians especially unhealthy residents with a high prevalence of obesity, diabetes, smoking, alcohol use, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, etc. Many of these diseases are environmentally related to poor nutrition, obesity, smoking, drug abuse, and work-place exposures. Kentucky also leads the nation in the percentage of pediatric populations with special health care needs. Prior work has shown that most adult diseases have their origin in childhood and some begin during fetal development, making childhood the ideal time for intervention with the goal of improving health outcomes into adulthood. Improving healthcare outcomes and wellness in children is contingent on expanding and sustaining high quality clinical research that includes diverse populations. Pediatricians at the University of Louisville (UofL) with our Healthcare Partners serve a highly diverse patient population that includes the rural and urban poor, a unique Appalachian community, refugees, and numerous ethnic minorities. To better serve this population, we propose to build upon our current programs, expand our bidirectional community engagement efforts, collaborate with other institutions on pediatric clinical trials through the ECHO IDeA Pediatric Clinical Trials Network, and collaborate with ECHO cohort, INBRE, and CTSA sites to advance healthcare for children. Education and training of local and regional faculty and staff is critical to sustain this initiative. The Kentucky ECHO-Pediatric IDeA Research Center (KE-PIRC), as part of the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network, will make it possible for 1) rural and underserved infants, children and adolescents to participate in clinical research; 2) junior investigators to be trained in clinical research and community engagement, improve the health of both children and adults in Kentucky through this research, and develop their academic career; and 3) the development of a regional network of partners to sustain this clinical research initiative. The five primary focus areas are 1) pre-, peri- and postnatal outcomes; 2) neurodevelopmental; 3) upper and lower airway disease; 4) obesity; and 5) positive health. These primary focus areas are highly prevalent in Kentucky; therefore, KE-PIRC will enable strengthening current collaborations and accelerate the development of new networks within the state through bidirectional community engagement and feedback to support pediatric clinical research. Through these efforts, we aim to improve the health outcomes of Kentucky children and adults and establish a local and national sustainable pediatric clinical research workforce.
