BRINGING CLINICIANS UP TO SPEED ON STATS AND THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MEDICINE IS GOAL OF NIH G RANT TO CENTER FOR CLINICAL EVALUATION SCIENCES

October 23, 1997

Media Contacts: Sarah Goodwin, 404/727-3366 - sgoodwi@emory.edu
Kathi Ovnic, 404/727-9371 - covnic@emory.edu
http://www.emory.edu/WHSC /

Brand new ways to look at and evaluate medicine have flourished along with the reach of managed care. But the language of population-based science is foreign and even intimidating to many doctors, nurses and other health pro fessionals who were taught to focus on "the patient."

Researchers at the Center for Clinical Evaluation Sciences at the Emory University School of Medicine have been awarded a $107,570 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a mo del for helping health professionals appreciate and become fluent in the linguistics of informatics, clinical epidemiology, outcomes assessments, health care economics, quality management and quality improvement.

Center faculty are designing cur riculum for an intense, one-week workshop that will provide clinicians an overview of population-based research and its value in answering research questions that may be applied to their own patients and practices. The federally funded workshop is being p lanned for Spring 1998.

"Today's medical students are learning to speak the new language of health care, but many doctors and nurses practicing out in the community received little exposure to the statistics and clinical evaluation side of healt h care during their training," says David A. Blake, Ph.D., associate director of the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University and vice president for Academic Health Affairs. "We're pleased to be able to serve as 'interpreters'."

Epidemiology, health care economics, informatics and outcomes research will be taught by center staff as well as other faculty from Emory's medical, public health and nursing schools, Atlanta's Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Morehouse School of Medicine.

"I'm excited by the opportunity to educate health care professionals from across the Atlanta area about population-based health care research," says Risa P. Hayes, Ph.D., associate professor and associate director for educa tion at the center. "Through this introduction, we hope to develop a network of health care professionals who will collaborate on interdisciplinary, population-based research projects in the coming years."

Established in 1994, the Emory U niversity Center for Clinical Evaluation Sciences conducts health service research to improve quality and efficiency across EMORY HEALTHCARE. By measuring health care quality, outcomes and resource consumption, the center helps patients and payers apprai se the value of health care services. In addition, center researchers design, conduct and evaluate intervention strategies to optimize the efficiency of care across this academic health system.

For more general information on The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center, call Health Sciences News and Information at 404-727-5686, or send e-mail to hsnews@emory.edu.