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Stimulus act funds rural medicine
$5 million in grant money will improve quality of care in Md.
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES
U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin gives House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer a handshake during a news conference on Monday in Bel Alton to announce $5 million in stimulus grants awarded to University of Maryland Medical School researchers for programs that aim to address minority and rural health disparities. To their right is Dr. Claudia Baquet, an associate dean at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and John Ruffin, director of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health.
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University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers will use nearly $5 million in federal stimulus dollars to boost minority participation in clinical trials and improve quality care in remote communities.
The announcement, made at a news conference Monday at the former Bel Alton High School, comes fresh off the narrow passage of landmark health care legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives late Saturday night. The bill to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans now moves to the Senate, where it faces a rough road ahead.
It set the stage for Monday's event, which was attended by two members of Maryland's congressional delegation, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, both Democrats.
"There is no reason in our society that anybody should be disconnected from good, sound counsel and advice," said Hoyer (Md., 5th). "That's what this grant is about."
The money comes in the form of two separate awards funded through the National Institutes of Health.
The first grant totaling $2.4 million will be used to help establish a national Bioethics Research Center that will develop strategies to minimize health disparities in Maryland and nationwide. When minority and rural populations are under-represented, clinical trials can fail to detect symptoms or trends that are specific to certain ethnicities and geographic areas.
"It's difficult to get out in the rural areas where citizens don't trust government and where they don't know about government services," said John Ruffin, director of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health.
The under-representation is particularly true in federally funded cancer treatment clinical trials, according to a 2008 study conducted by Claudia R. Baquet, associate dean for the Office of Policy and Planning at the medical school. The percentage of African-Americans who participated in cancer clinical trials dropped 8.9 percent per year between 1999 and 2002, according to the study. The results were troubling because of the disproportionately high rates for certain cancers among African-Americans.
The other grant, totaling $2.5 million, will set up a program in Garrett County and Southern Maryland to evaluate chronically ill patients remotely using so-called "telehealth" technologies.
Patients in rural areas who receive care far from their homes will receive equipment that will allow doctors and nurses to monitor their condition from afar using remote equipment and videoconferencing. The program focuses on patients with diabetes, hypertension and heart failure and will study whether home telehealth care can close rural gaps in coverage.
"The misconception is that the problems are solved at NIH in Bethesda," Ruffin said.
Medical school researchers will work with service providers in Garrett County and Southern Maryland to identify 250 patients who will participate in the telehealth initiative.
More rural residents lack insurance coverage and remote communities statistically have higher infant mortality rates, among other negative health trends, Cardin said.
The Bioethics Research Center program received stimulus money because it will preserve or create 20 jobs, said Baquet, who is also director of the school's Center for Health Disparities Research and Outreach.
"I know you are going to take this grant money and turn it into real progress for real people," Hoyer told Baquet.
The stimulus money, however, will only go so far to achieve the desired goals for both programs.
When funds for the Bioethics Research Center run out, NIH has a community-based research program that has similar objectives and can provide additional dollars, Baquet said. The telehealth initiative is dependent on federal and state lawmakers in order to secure more money, she added.
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