Projects

A Chicago Center of Excellence in Learning Health Systems Research Training (ACCELERAT) is a K12 scholars training program established to develop the next generation of health system transformation leaders. The goal of the program is to support the training of junior faculty to be engaged in advancing patient centered outcomes research (PCOR) within learning health systems and to facilitate rapid implementation of evidence into those systems to improve the quality and outcomes of care.

The diverse institutions in ACCELERAT provide care across the patient life spectrum from pediatrics to geriatrics, and across all care settings (from pre-patient to acute inpatient care and rehabilitation). Our faculty and scholars are diverse and draw from the Chicagoland region, with several faculty who lead their own related training programs.  Core training domains in ACCELERAT are led by experts in mentorship and training, health services research, informatics, patient reported outcomes, quality improvement in health systems, and fostering a culture of change. ACCELERAT serves as a national leader in teaching core LHS research competencies aimed to train our future LHS leaders to transform care delivery and advance PCOR within the context of delivering quality health care.

Leadership

• Abel Kho, MD, MS, FACMI
  Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University
  Director of the Center for Health Information Partnerships (CHIP)
• Patricia D. Franklin, MD, MBA, MPH
  Professor in the Departments of Medical Social Sciences and Orthopedics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Scholars

2nd Cohort

Project Title: Implementing patient-reported outcomes in dermatology to optimize management of chronic inflammatory skin disease Raj Chovatiya is Assistant Professor in the Department of Dermatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He received his MD and PhD in immunobiology from Yale University in 2016. He completed his internal medicine internship at Yale in 2017, followed by dermatology residency at Northwestern in 2020. In his last year of residency training, while serving as Chief Resident, Dr. Chovatiya was a NRSA postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Chovatiya’s area of clinical expertise is chronic inflammatory skin disease including atopic dermatitis (AD), eczema, itch, psoriasis, hidradenitis, pemphigoid, and vitiligo – especially among individuals with skin of color. He directs the Center for Eczema and Itch in the Department of Dermatology. His research project will focus on implementing patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in routine care for atopic dermatitis patients and developing a learning health systems framework that can be expanded to other chronic inflammatory skin diseases. In particular, his research aims to elucidate patient and physician perspectives regarding use of PROs in AD clinical care, validate and implement PROs in the clinical setting for standard-of-care management of AD, and drive a comprehensive care management program incorporating PROs in shared decision making across dermatology clinics.

Project Title: Quality improvement to improve pediatric acute agitation management in the emergency department Jennifer Hoffmann, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Lurie Children’s Hospital. She received her MD from Northwestern University in 2013, completed residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, and completed fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Hoffmann’s research aims to develop quality measures for acute agitation management in the emergency department that are informed by multidisciplinary perspectives including patients and families. She will field test the developed measures to determine whether a quality improvement initiative driven by clinical decision support improves quality of care for acute agitation management in youth in the emergency department. The results of her study will inform the development of national quality measures for pediatric mental health emergencies.

Project Title: Transitioning a Shared Decision Making Dashboard to Telemedicine Clinical Encounters Dr. Mohindra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology. She is a medical oncologist at the Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center of Northwestern University specializing in the treatment of lung cancer. She received her Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology training at the McGaw Center of Northwestern University. Her clinical research has focused on clinical trials of novel therapeutics in lung cancer patients and efforts to improve care delivery. Her research project will focus on how to adapt and utilize a shared decision-making dashboard during telemedicine visits. The dashboard incorporates patient-reported outcome measures and clinical factors to enhance patient-centered, shared decision-making and health co-production between patients and clinicians. The overarching goal is to align health care service delivery with patient and family needs, goals, and values in the context of what is medically achievable. Dr. Mohindra will specifically focus on how to utilize and optimize this dashboard during telemedicine visits.

Project Title: A regional learning health system approach to substance use disorder care among the Cook County adult probation population Dr. Juleigh Nowinski Konchak is an Addiction Medicine and Public Health/Preventive medicine physician at Cook County Health (CCH) in Chicago, IL. She serves as a physician advisor for CCH’s substance use disorder (SUD) programming, including medications for addiction treatment (MAT), and is the Associate Program Director for the Public Health/General Preventive Medicine Residency Program with CCH and Northwestern. She received her MD from University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, completed her residency in Public Health/General Preventive Medicine with the Cook County Health/Northwestern University program, and received her MPH and Certificate in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety from Northwestern University. Juleigh is a first year scholar focused on improving access to evidence-based SUD treatment for individuals involved in community corrections. Through a regional learning health system approach, this effort aims to support sustained systems improvement through multi-sector collaboration, elevate the patient voice to drive culture change, and address inequities in opioid-related fatality and access to evidence-based SUD care.

Project Title: School-Based Asthma Management in Chicago Public Schools: An Implementation Science-Based Approach to Coordinated Asthma Care Andrea A. Pappalardo, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Allergy at the University of Illinois at Chicago--UI Health. She received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis, her MD from University of Illinois at Chicago, completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency at University of Chicago, and a fellowship in Allergy/Immunology at Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Hospital. She has been practicing clinical allergy immunology across the lifespan in a variety of settings including: urban, suburban and community practice for over ten years. She is the Medical Director of the Mobile Care Chicago Asthma and Allergy Program, and the Medical Director of CHECK, a care coordination program for Medicaid recipients in Illinois. Dr. Pappalardo is now shifting her career focus to improving healthcare access through implementation-science based healthcare innovation.  Her K12 project is to assess school-based asthma management practices in Chicago Public Schools and pilot a stock inhalers program in select Chicago schools with demonstrated high asthma burden. Health equity is central to Dr. Pappalardo's work as she focuses on health-related policy implementation, such as stock inhalers for schools, for communities state-wide that aim to provide critical medication access to all with respiratory symptoms during the school day.

Project Title: Universal Implementation of a Substance Use Screening & Intervention Service in a Pediatric Hospital Using a Learning Health Systems Framework Faith Summersett Williams, PhD, is an Assistant Professor with dual faculty appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She received her PhD in 2018 and MS in 2016 from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She works as a pediatric psychologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital where she provides mental health support for the division’s growing Substance Use and Prevention Program. Faith is a first year scholar focused on establishing a system-wide standard of care within a pediatric hospital. In particular, she will examine the feasibility and effectiveness of an evidence-based substance use screening and treatment intervention in the inpatient hospital setting with a particularly vulnerable pediatric population – youth with chronic medical conditions who are at high-risk for secondary substance use disorder and health-related complications of substance use. The results of this study will inform the extension of this intervention to other settings such as outpatient clinics and school-based settings where children and adolescents also seek care and services.

1st Cohort

Project Title: Implementing and testing heart failure patient-reported outcomes measures in a learning health system Faraz Ahmad, MD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine (Cardiology) and the Department of Preventive Medicine (Health and Biomedical Informatics) in the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He received his MD from the University of Chicago in 2009 and MS in Health and Biomedical Informatics from Northwestern University in 2017. He completed his residency at the University of Pennsylvania and fellowships at Northwestern University. Faraz is a first year scholar focused on enhancing the clinical utility of a novel, heart failure patient-reported outcome measure (the PROMIS-Plus-HF Profile Measure) using innovative health measurement science approaches and on optimizing the integration of the patient-reported outcomes measures into the routine care of patients with heart failure using principles from implementation science as part of the NM PRO initiative.

Project Title: Integrating Patient-Reported Outcomes and Remote Patient Sensor Data in Childhood Asthma Kristin Kan, MD is an Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at Lurie Children’s Hospital. She received her MD from Johns Hopkins University in 2010 and an MPH in 2009. She completed her residency at the University of Washington in 2013 and received her MSc in Health Services Research from the University of Michigan in 2016. Kristin is a first year scholar focused on the integration of patient-reported outcomes and remote patient sensor data in childhood asthma. The results of this study will influence how to best design future version(s) of this technology-enhanced intervention, aimed to optimize health providers’ support of asthma self-management and families’ asthma-related, self-efficacy and quality of life.

Project Title: Development of a Novel, Post-Surgical, Post-Discharge Complication Monitoring and Adaptive Intervention System Using Tailored Patient Reported Outcomes Ryan Merkow, MD is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in Northwestern Quality Improvement, Research, & Education in Surgery at Feinberg School of Medicine. He received his MD from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2007 and his MS in Health Services and Outcomes Research from Northwestern University in 2012. He completed his residency in surgery at the University of Chicago in 2015, and advanced fellowship training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2017. Ryan is a first year scholar focused on the development of a novel, post-surgical, post-discharge complication monitoring and adaptive intervention system using tailored patient reported outcomes. The results of his study will improve care for patients during one of the most vulnerable and high risk periods after major cancer surgery, and build the infrastructure to generalize the monitoring system to other areas of surgery.

Project Title: The Substance Use Intervention Team: Addressing Health Disparities with a Systems-Level Strategy to Identify and Treat Opioid Misuse Hale Thompson, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2016, his MS in Epidemiology from the University of Minnesota in 2011, and his MA in Sociology from the University of Illinois in 1995. Hale is a first-year scholar conducting research to address health disparities with a systems-level intervention to identify and treat opioid misuse. The results of his study will inform the replication and adaptation of the intervention at other medical centers.

Curriculum

Scholars are supported by a rich training environment including a mentoring team and various learning activities that match the interests of the faculty scholars with core competencies. ACCELERAT training activities are designed to enable learning health system (LHS) scientists to establish foundational and emerging skills for developing proficiency over time. ACCELERAT training activities can be categorized in four general categories: LHS didactics, training workshops, longitudinal mentored research, and quality improvement (QI) and leadership training.

Accomplishments

K12 scholars have published on their project accomplishments. Find ACCELERAT publications here.

Contact Us

For general inquiries, please contact ACCELERAT. We currently are not accepting applications for the K12 Program.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $55 million to build the foundational partnerships and infrastructure needed to launch the Cohort Program of President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI)—now called All of Us. All of Us is a landmark longitudinal research effort that aims to engage 1 million or more U.S. participants to improve our ability to prevent and treat disease based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment and genetics. CHIP received a supplement for the All of Us research program to study the degree of EHR data fragmentation in WI, IL, and IN.

Team members help lead All of Us efforts in Chicago and nationally as part of the Illinois Precision Medicine Consortium and the Data Coordinating Center.

The Illinois consortium is comprised of a group of health care provider organizations led by Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, and AllianceChicago. The consortium will enroll at least 150,000 participants, including healthy people and those with pre-existing diseases, over 4.5 years. The Data and Research Support Center—awarded to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and working with Broad Institute and Verily Life Sciences—has been established to acquire, organize, and provide secure access to what will be one of the world’s largest and most diverse datasets for precision medicine research.

Read more about All of Us

Collaborators:

AllianceChicago
Broad Institute
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital
University of Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Verily Life Sciences (formerly Google Life Sciences)

CAPriCORN is a patient-centered outcomes and research network representing an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse population with significant disparities in access to and utilization of healthcare. Through its unique array of partners, including leading area medical institutions served by robust EHR systems and community partners engaged in health promotion and healthcare in the area, CAPriCORN will:

• Establish a network to share data
• Identify a cohort of over one million patients in the Chicago area
• Establish a sustainable platform for patient-centered outcomes research that engages clinicians, patients, and other stakeholders in carrying out meaningful research.

This project in designing the CAPriCORN network, scaling up knowledge of data linking and distributing query platform customization to centralize a data hub for Chicago area institutions.

Abel Kho serves as the PI of CAPriCORN central. Local site leadership for the Northwestern University site is Faculty Member Dr. Faraz Ahmad.

Learn more on the CAPriCORN website.

Collaborators: Alliance of Chicago, Center for Medical Technology Policy, Clinical Directors Network, Cook County Health and Hospital Systems, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Loyola University Medical Center, Medical Research Analytics and Informatics Alliance (MRAIA), NorthShore University Health System, Rand Corporation, Rush University Medical Center, Tufts Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, University of Chicago Medicine, University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, VA Healthcare, Vanderbilt University

Supporting Collaborators: AbbVie, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, CHITREC, Chicago Asthma Consortium, Chicago Department of Public Health — Healthy Chicago, Cook County, Columbia University STRIVE, Have A Heart for Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, HealthCare Research Associates, Horizon Pharma, Illinois Association of Blood Banks, IBio Institute, Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois Health and Hospital Association, Illinois Medical District Commission, PASTORS4PCOR, The Peggy Lillis Memorial Foundation, Respiratory Health Association, Sickle Cell Disease Association of Illinois, University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital, VA Information Resource Center, Vizient

Community Interventionot Reduce Cardiovascular Disease in Chicago (CIRCL-Chicago) is a federally funded research program to improve high blood pressure (hypertension) control in the Chicago South Side community. In Chicago, the prevalence of high blood pressure is higher among Black than white residents, and that gap is widening.  

The CIRCL-Chicago study will evaluate the effectiveness of a community-driven adaptation of the Kaiser hypertension bundle, a collection of interventions and strategies designed to increase blood pressure control rates. The bundle includes a high blood pressure registry (i.e., list of patients), education on blood pressure measurement and treatment, feedback on blood pressure control rates, regular follow-up visits for blood pressure measurement, medication recommendations, and links to community resources.  

For this study, Northwestern has partnered with faith-based organizations (FBOs) and community health centers (CHCs) in the South Side of Chicago. This team-based approach will increase coordinated care between clinic and community settings to improve hypertension control for Chicago’s South Side residents.

Co-Principal Investigators:

Abel Kho, MD, MS, FACMI
Paris Davis, PhD, MBA
JD Smith, PhD

Community Organization Collaborators:

Pastors4PCOR
Total Resource Community Development Organization

Clinical Partners:

Access Community Health Network (ACCESS)
Advocate Aurora Health

Academic Research Collaborators:

University of Chicago
University of Utah
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Funding:

This project is supported by a Disparities Elimination through Coordinated Interventions to Prevent and Control Heart and Lung Disease Risk award of the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number U3HL154297.The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact:

Contact the CIRCL-Chicago team at circl-chicago@northwestern.edu with any questions, or if you're interested in participating in the research study.

Blood Pressure Information for Participants

Resources in English

1. Blood pressure -- What do the numbers mean?: Understand blood pressure readings
2. DASH Eating Plan: Learn about the DASH diet focus on fruits and vegetables, low fat milk products,
   and whole grains
3. How to Manage Blood Pressure: Learn how to read blood pressure numbers and get tips for managing blood pressure.
4. Sodum Shakedown: Read about why we should limit sodium intake and see sodium amounts in common foods

Recursos en español (Resources in Spanish)

1. Aprenda a leer las etiquetas de los alimentos: How to read food labels (Spanish)
2. La presión arterial alta y la dieta DASH: An overview of high blood pressure and the DASH diet (Spanish)

Community Resources for Help on the South Side of Chicago

Housing Assistance

• Total Resource Community Development Organization (a CIRCL-Chicago partner) 
• City of Chicago Emergency Rental Assistance
• Illinois Housing Development Authority: Offers rent, mortgage, utility, and legal assistance
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Food Assistance

• Total Resource Community Development Organization (a CIRCL-Chicago partner)
• Greater Chicago Food Depository
• Catholic Charities of Chicago: Offers a range of food assistance including SNAP enrollment, food pantries, and home delivered meals for seniors
• Chicago Department of Public Health Food Resources

Transportation Assistance

• Total Resource Community Development Organization (a CIRCL-Chicago partner)
• Regional Transportation Authority Free Transportation and Reduced Fares: Offers free and reduced fare permits for CTA, Metra, and Pace for eligible adults (senior, people with disabilities, and military)
• City of Chicago DFSS Community Centers Reduced Fare Application Assistance: Offers assistance enrolling in RTA fare programs

Electric, Gas, Oil, or Water Utility Billing Assistance

• Total Resource Community Development Organization (a CIRCL-Chicago partner)
• City of Chicago Energy Billing Relief Program & LIHWAP: Water, sewer, and water-sewer utility billing assistance
• Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County (CEDA) Utility Bill Assistance: Offers assistance with gas, electric, and water utility bill payments, and furniture repair/replacement
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) utility assistance for Illinois

Resources for Safety or Violence:

• Total Resource Community Development Organization (a CIRCL-Chicago partner)
• Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline available at (877) 863-6338: Anonymous hotline open 24/7 
• Metropolitan Family Services: Offers adult protective services, domestic violence clinical services, individual and family counseling, and legal aid services

Help with Barriers to Work

• Phalanx Family Services: Bridges the gap of financial barriers that may prevent individuals from being successful as they transition into work activity, training, and employment. Financial assistance available to help stabilize housing.

Blood Pressure Intervention (Kaiser Bundle)

The CIRCL-Chicago research study will evaluate the effectiveness of a community-driven adaptation of the Kaiser hypertension bundle. This figure illustrates how CIRCL-Chicago will implement the adaptation.

• Overview of Hypertension with Resources on Single-Pill Treatment: Explains how using the Kaiser Bundle can treat high blood pressure

Clinical Resources

1. Adult Blood Pressure Clinician Guide: Based on the 2018 Kaiser Permanente National Blood Pressure (BP) Guidelines, the guide was developed to assist with screening and treatment of elevated BP in non-pregnant adults aged ≥ 18 years.
2. BP Treatment Algorithm -- Patients with Stage 2 Hypertension Not on Medication: An ACCESS Community Health Network flow chart to aid in decision making around medication prescribing
3. Cardiovascular Health Medication Adherence ACTION STEPS for Public Health Practitioners: Strategies and example actions that can improve medication adherence
4. CIRCL-Chicago Blood Pressure Measurement Protocol: A 6-step guide for measuring blood pressure
5. Improving hypertension surveillance from a data management prospective: Data requirements for implementation of population-based registry: Article describing a study that provides infrastructure for active tracing and monitoring of individuals with HTN
6. Million Hearts Hypertension Control Change Package: Process improvements that outpatient clinical settings can implement for optimal hypertension control
7. U.S. Blood Pressure Validated Device Listing (VDL): The American Medical Association convened experts to develop VDL Criteria to determine which automated blood pressure (BP) measurement devices have been validated for clinical accuracy
8. Visit Checklist -- Supporting Your Patients with High Blood Pressure

Study Results

Results of the CIRCL-Chicago research study are published in scientific journals and in other formats. We are also sharing the results here:

1. Carroll AJ, Mohanty N, Lazar D, et al. Establishment of a multi-sector partnership to implement a multilevel intervention for blood pressure control among African Americans on the South Side of Chicago. Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health. 2023.
2. Smith JD, Davis P, Kho AN. Community-Driven Health Solutions on Chicago's South Side. Staff Soc Innov Rev. 2021 Summer;19(3):A27-A29. doi: 10.48558/85p7-3113.
3. View a Northwestern Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) seminar, "Implementation Science & Informatics to Improve Cardiovascular Care in Primary Care Settings," that includes a description of the early phases of CIRCL-Chicago. 

The Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network is a National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)-funded consortium tasked with developing methods and best practices for utilization of the electronic medical record (EMR) as a tool for genomic research. It combines DNA biorepositories with electronic medical record (EMR) systems for large-scale, high-throughput genetic research in support of implementing genomic medicine.  eMERGE studies and pilots genomic medicine translation through discovery, implementation, tools, and policy.

As a member of the eMERGE consortium, Abel Kho has developed EHR-based phenotyping methods to enable high-throughput genetic studies.

For more information, visit the eMERGE website.

Collaborators:
Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC)
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC)
Columbia University
Geisinger Health System
Kaiser Permanente Washington (KPW)/University of Washington (UW)
eMERGE Network Coordinating Center
Group Health Cooperative with the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Harvard University
Mayo Clinic
Meharry Medical College
Partners Healthcare with Broad Institute
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC)

Guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) for patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) improves quality of life, reduces hospitalizations, and extends survival. However, busy clinicians treating stable patients with chronic diseases often "leave well enough alone." This clinical inertia results in GDMT underuse and frequently does not align with patient health preferences.

The I-I-CAPTAIN (Implementation and Interaction of Clinician and Patient-facing Tools Aiming to Intensify Neurohormonal Medicines for Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction) trial will implement and test patient-facing and clinician-facing nudges for HFrEF medication intensification at five health systems around the country through a randomized, implementation-effectiveness trail.

The results of this pragmatic trial will answer broad questions related to decision support for evidence-based care, including whether patient-facing or clinician-facing decision support tools are more effective or if the two approaches are additive or synergistic. Ultimately, the trial aims to identify scalable strategies that promote the equitable uptake of evidence-based therapies. 

NM Collaborators:
NM Information Services

External Collaborators:
University of Colorado (Lead Site)
Yale University
University of Utah
Sutter Health

Funding:
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Timeline:
2024-2029

In Silico, Medical Record-based Model for Understanding the INitiation of Autoimmune Events (IMMUNE) aims to test the feasibility and effectiveness of using a hybrid in silico/ in vivo (computer-simulated/ in living organism) model system, combined with machine learning strategies as a platform for understanding the etiology of autoimmune disease.

IMMUNE brings together a team of immunologists, oncologists, informaticists and machine learning experts working within an electronic health record (EHR) network, to identify a cohort of cancer patients who have undergone immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. From this cohort, the team will design and implement a broad and deep longitudinal database of EHR data, including treatment and response data and laboratory results, to enable the development of phenotypic profiles and models for autoimmune disease development in humans.

Evaluation:
This project will create computable phenotypes to identify patients with rheumatoid arthritis that develops spontaneously or following immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. Following identification, these phenotypes will be extended to the PCORnet Common Data Model to expand the cohort size and per-patient data depth.

Supervised and unsupervised machine learning strategies will then be used to develop and compare preliminary phenotypic profiles for patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the presence or absence of cancer and ICI therapy.

Principal Investigators:
Theresa Walunas, PhD
Abel Kho, MD, MS

Project Team:
Jeffrey Sosman, MD
Carlos Galvez, MD
Al’ona Furmanchuck, PhD, CHIP Faculty
Yuan Luo, PhD, CHIP Faculty
Jennifer Pacheco
Luke Rasmussen, MS
Steven Tran

Funding:
Funding for this project was provided by the National Institutes of Health/ National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIH/ NIAMS).

INSPIRE is a research study that supports and evaluates the implementation of screening and treatment interventions for patients with unhealthy alcohol use.

INSPIRE uses evidence-based quality improvement (QI) support to increase screening, brief intervention, treatment, and referral to treatment in the primary care setting. Practice staff and recruited providers receive online and in-person education promoting the use of related workflows in electronic health record (EHR) systems.

A minimum of 125 (up to 160) small, primary care practices and health centers in Wisconsin and Illinois will be involved. INSPIRE builds on the practice facilitation infrastructure developed through the AHRQ-funded Healthy Hearts in the Heartland (H3) research study.

The Wisconsin and Illinois region has some of the highest excessive and binge drinking rates in the country.

Evaluation:
INSPIRE will evaluate the effectiveness of the education and its impact on screening and treatment of patients with unhealthy alcohol use. Other tracked outcomes include: 1) Effects of the amount of practice facilitation provided, 2) Experiences of practices using their EHRs, 3) Impact of practice characteristics on the intervention, and 4) Health equity among underserved groups.

Co-Principal Investigators:
Abel Kho and Theresa Walunas

NU Central Team Leads:
Lauren Echols, Project Manager
Mercedes Nodal, Research Coordinator
Jenn Bannon, Practice Facilitation
Eva Winckler, Outreach & Communications
Rick Chagnon, Data Infrastructure

Funding:

INSPIRE was awarded $2.2 million. The Research Demonstration and Dissemination Grant (R18) is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Timeline:
INSPIRE has a 4-year grant period, beginning September 30, 2019.

Collaborators:
ACCESS Community Health Network
AllianceChicago
Altarum Institute
American Institutes for Research
MetaStar, Inc.
Northwestern Medicine
Northwestern University
Oregon Research Institute

In collaboration with the Pew Charitable Trusts and Regenstrief Institute, CHIP aims to identify demographic variables that are crucial for accurate patient matching and assess their current use and standardization across healthcare organizations.

One of the key building blocks to achieving interoperability is the ability to correctly match patients to their health records and effectively link records for the same individual across institutions. Currently, match rates between organizations can be as low as fifty percent, resulting in patients and clinicians not having the information they need, introducing safety risks, and increasing costs. At the end of this study, we aim to provide recommendations for improving matching outcomes through standardization.

We will analyze the demographic data captured and used by health care organizations to match patient records and develop a report that describes current documentation and standardization practices in the United States.

Principal Investigator:
Abel Kho, MD, MS, FACMI

Project Team:
Vesna Mitrovic, Data Group Lead
Lacey Gleason, Project Manager
Yu Deng, PhD Student, Doctoral Research Assistant
Mohamed Hassan, PhD Student, Doctoral Research Assistant

Funding:
Funding for this project is provided by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Collaborators:
Pew Charitable Trusts
Shaun Grannis, Regenstrief Institute
Adam Culbertson

Identification of Rare Autoimmune Events Following Administration of Immunotherapy Drugs (irAE-ID) is part of The National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet)’s Cancer Collaborative Research Group’s initiative to stimulate collaborative projects that use PCORnet resources. Working with two PCORnet networks, the Chicago Area Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Network (CAPriCORN) and the Stakeholder, Technology and Research (STAR) Network, the project has two primary aims:

1. To test the feasibility of developing computational phenotyping algorithms to identify patients with checkpoint inhibitor-sensitive cancers who are treated with immunotherapeutic regimens;
2. To assess the rate of occurrence for a rare immunotoxic autoimmune event (Type 1 Diabetes) with long term consequences for patient health.

The computational phenotypes developed in this project could significantly accelerate the identification of rare but significant immune-related adverse events (irAE). The project could be a platform for future identification of biomarkers of irAE to support precision medicine approaches for employing immunotherapy that minimize the potential for irreversible autoimmune damage.

Principal Investigator:
Theresa Walunas, PhD

CHIP Collaborators:
Al’ona Furmanchuck, PhD

Funding:
Funding for this project is provided by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Grant Number: CDRN-1306-04737.

Collaborators:
Jeffrey Sosman, MD, Northwestern Medicine, Department of Hematology and Oncology
Christine Micheel, PhD, Vanderbilt University
Zoe Quandt, MD, University of California San Francisco
Carlos Galvez, MD, Northwestern Medicine, Department of Hematology and Oncology
Saya Jacob, MD, Northwestern Medicine

As part of the Veteran’s Affairs (VA)s Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI), the project aims to improve veteran health by facilitating the rapid implementation of quality colonoscopy practices into routine care. This project will enable VA medical centers to implement the measurement and reporting of quality colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening, with a focus on adenoma detection rate (ADR).

Natural language processing (NLP), which is the field studying human-computer interactions, has already been validated for the measurement of ADR.  The next step is to apply structured text mining and NLP to national data on the VINCI platform so that each endoscopist’s and facility’s ADR can be calculated, shared and used.

The project has the potential to affect many VA patients across the country, with 8.76 million veterans served by the biggest healthcare system in the country.  Report cards—created using the NLP of procedure and pathology free-text notes in the EHR—will be provided for VA colonoscopists to monitor quality of patient care.  The VA will roll out this quality improvement initiative to providers throughout the whole network.

Read more.

Collaborator:
Salt Lake City Veteran’s Administration

The Natural Experiments for Translation in Diabetes (NEXT-D) Study examines how the Affordable Care Act expansion of Medicaid will affect diabetes diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes among the newly enrolled. We will compare differences that arise between some states expanding Medicaid and others choosing not to do so. Data will be combined with detailed, longitudinal electronic health record (EHR) data for a large population of 9 million in four expansion and five non-expansion states.

This cooperative agreement is jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) under CDC Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number: RFA- DP10-002, entitled Natural Experiments and Effectiveness Studies to Identify the Best Policy and System Level Practices to Prevent Diabetes and Its Complications.

The NEXT-D project utilizes the CAPriCORN data repository to create the study population. The study population’s individual addresses will then be geocoded to create the control group for analysis. With the connections to CAPriCORN, CHiP Director Abel Kho is co-principal investigator with another Northwestern University faculty member.

For more information, visit the Next-D website and learn about the Northwestern Site Team.

Collaborators:
Chicago Community Trust
Greater Plains Collaborative
Medical College of Wisconsin
Minnesota Population Center
University of Kansas Medical Center

The SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) Project, with funding from an NIH R21 grant, focuses on addressing the need to reduce the time it takes to identify patients with SLE. SLE is a difficult to diagnose chronic autoimmune disease affecting more than 200,000 Americans each year. When diagnosed early, SLE treatment can begin sooner and candidates for clinical trials can be identified earlier.

The interdisciplinary project will create a series of algorithms that pinpoint patients with SLE and assess the makeup of the SLE patient population. The team will use electronic health record (EHR) data from multiple health care institutions not only to identify patients, but to cluster similar sub-groups to align these SLE patients with clinical trials and targeted therapy in a timelier fashion.

Co-Principal Investigators:
Theresa Walunas, PhD
Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, MD, DrPH (Solovy Arthritis Research Society Professor in Rheumatology at Medicine at Northwestern University)

Collaborator:
Abel Kho, MD, MS