MUSC, UNC-CH testing diabetes outreach facilitated by iPad technology
August 26, 2014
Researchers aim to reduce hospital readmission for patients in rural Bamberg County
CHARLESTON, SC – The South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research (SCTR) Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are partnering to decrease diabetes prevalence and complications in Bamberg County, S.C. The Bamberg Diabetes Transitional Care Study will use new iPad technology to explore different diabetes interventions for patients transitioning from the hospital to home. The overarching goal of the initiative is to establish a cost-effective and best-practice diabetes-management model that could be used across the U.S. to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions and improve self-care for this high-risk population.
Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in South Carolina, and nearly 15 percent of residents in Bamberg County have the disease (a rate more than 1.5 times the national average). The county’s rural nature restricts access to medical care, nutrition counseling and self-management training for chronic illness, making it an ideal program setting. MUSC and UNC-CH will partner with the Bamberg County Diabetes Coalition, the Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties and the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Voorhees College has served as the local host for the project. Both principal investigators, Sam Cykert, M.D.,UNC-CH professor and associate director of medical education for the NC AHEC program, and Carolyn Jenkins, Dr.PH., MUSC College of Nursing professor, bring decades of experience in working with communities to improve care and health outcomes.
Both MUSC and UNC-CH are home to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) programs. The CTSA program is a consortium of more than 60 academic medical institutions across the country, led by the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, to accelerate clinical and translational research. These centers are strategically positioned to move the health sciences from discovery to dissemination, and on to patients and communities. CTSAs seek to overcome barriers to this translation by improving efficiency, training the research workforce and sharing successful research methods.
About the SCTR Institute
The South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute (SCTR) of the Medical University of South Carolina is the catalyst for changing the culture of biomedical research, facilitating sharing of resources and expertise, and streamlining research-related processes to bring about large-scale change in the clinical and translational research efforts in South Carolina. The SCTR Institute was established in 2006 in response to the National Institute of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Award Program, funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NIH/NCATS Grant UL1TR000062). For more information, visit sctr.musc.edu.
About MUSC
Founded in 1824 in Charleston, the Medical University of South Carolina is the oldest medical school in the South. Today, MUSC continues the tradition of excellence in education, research, and patient care. MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and residents, and has nearly 13,000 employees, including approximately 1,500 faculty members. As the largest non-federal employer in Charleston, the university and its affiliates have collective annual budgets in excess of $1.7 billion. MUSC operates a 750-bed medical center, which includes a nationally recognized Children’s Hospital, the Ashley River Tower (cardiovascular, digestive disease, and surgical oncology), and a leading Institute of Psychiatry. For more information on academic information or clinical services, visit musc.edu.
About the NC TraCS Institute
The North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute, combines the research strengths, resources and opportunities of UNC, partner institution RTI International (RTI) and planning partner North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C, A&T). The mission of NC TraCS is to accelerate clinical and translational research from health science to discovery to dissemination to patients and communities. It seeks to overcome barriers to translation by improving efficiency, training the research workforce and sharing successful research methods. As the integrated home of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program at UNC-CH, NC TraCS is supported through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant UL1TR001111. The CTSA program is led by the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
