Message from the Director

Research – Benjamin Crabtree, PhD

The vision of the UMDNJ-RWJMS Family Medicine Research Division is to develop and sustain a nurturing and productive research environment that fosters collaborative transdisciplinary approaches to promote the health of families and communities by improving quality of care and eliminating health-related disparities.

Message from the Director:

We are proud to acknowledge the selection of Jeanne Ferrante, MD, MPH to the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, Alpha Eta Chapter.

Research Division member Barbara DiCicco-Bloom gave a May 13 presentation on a Social Capital Scale to the Lehigh Valley Family Health Center. As part of a research project the practice received a high score on a social capital scale which is the subject of a manuscript in progress. The presentation gave the practice and Dr. DiCicco-Bloom an opportunity to discuss the scale's value and a chance for practice members to discuss their practice's organizational structures and processes.

On May 15-18 Benjamin Crabtree, PhD, Deborah Cohen, PhD, and Eric Shaw, PhD attended the EPIC Learning Session in Denver, CO. While in Denver, Dr. Shaw assisted the study facilitators prior to the learning session and took field notes during the session to be used for ongoing qualitative analyses.

May 19-22 Rebecca Etz attended the meeting of the National Committee on Vital Health Statistics.

Jeanne Ferrante submitted a R01 grant to NCI titled “Increasing Cancer Screening in Obese Women Using Patient Navigation.” This research is to evaluate the effectiveness of a patient navigator program in increasing breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates among obese women in primary care practices. Dr. Ferrante wishes to acknowledge the tremendous help she received from Maria Pellerano and Cynthia Duncan-Robinson.

The weekly Division meetings featured a number of informative presentations in May. We were especially fortunate that guest speaker Dr. Cecil Helman, Professor, Department of Anthropology at Brunel University, London, was able to join us. Dr. Helman is an international expert on medical anthropology - the cross-cultural study of health, illness, and medical care - and on the many different forms of healthcare and healing found worldwide. He has done research on primary health care systems, and on traditional healers, in South Africa, Brazil, and elsewhere. His textbook Culture, Health and Illness has been used in more than 40 countries since it was first published in 1984, including in over 120 universities, medical schools and nursing colleges in the USA and Canada. He has also published academic papers in medical journals, including The Lancet, British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, British Journal of General Practice, and Medical Humanities. He has received several prestigious international prizes and awards for his work. Among his other interests are the role of metaphors and symbols in our understanding of the human body, in both illness and health; and what the Western industrialized world can learn from the healing systems of more traditional societies, when dealing with different aspects of human sufferings. The topic of his presentation was: "Practical & Ethical Problems of Doing Research in a Multi-Cultural Society".

The speaker for our May 13 meeting was Bijal A. Balasubramanian, MBBS, PhD. Dr. Balasubramanian is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, Research Division, at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The title of her presentation is "ULTRA - A quality improvement intervention to improve adherence to chronic disease care guidelines." Dr. Balasubramanian presented the main results from the ULTRA study.

Our May 20 guest speaker was John P. Metz, MD, CAQSM. Dr. Metz is Associate Director of JFK Family Practice Residency at JFK Hospital, Clinical Instructor of Family Medicine at UMDNJ/RWJMS and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMDNJ/NJMS. Dr. Metz is a Diplomat of the American Board of Family Medicine, and a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine. He has been selected as a "Top Doctor" in the NY Metro Area by Castle and Connolly Medical. Dr. Metz gave a presentation on his poster that was accepted for presentation at the Program Director's meeting scheduled for June 8-10, 2008. The title was: “EMR Olympics: A Way to Teach Electronic Medical record (EMR) Use in a Residency Setting”. Dr. Metz accepted feedback and comments on his poster presentation.

The May 27 guest speakers were Steven W. Kairys, MD, MPH and Diane Abatemarco, PhD, MSW. Dr. Kairys is Chairman of Pediatrics, Jersey Shore University Medical Center and also Medical Director, American Academy of Pediatrics, Quality Improvement and Innovation Network. In addition, he is Director of the New Jersey Pediatric Council on Research and Education. His research interests are prevention and mental health, child abuse and general pediatric. Dr. Abatemarco is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburg. Her research interests include evaluation, prevention science, behavioral epidemiology, and Global Health. Currently, with funding from the American Academy of Pediatrics, she is conducting a three-year scientific evaluation to determine the outcomes of an intervention to help pediatricians prevent child abuse and neglect. The title of their presentation was "Practicing Safety."

The Division continued its hosting of the bi-weekly CINJ Population Science meetings. May 20 guest speaker was Rose Marie Martin, MPH, PhD candidate, Department of Epidemiology, UMDNJ School of Public Health. Her research interests are the effects of the implementation of highly active retroviral therapy (HAART) on the survival of persons diagnosed with HIV infection, in particular as it relates to various cancer types. Her presentation title was: "Trends in Cancer and Development of AIDS in HIV-Infected Individuals Before and After Implementation of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy."

The speaker for the May 27 meeting was Shawna Hudson, PhD. Dr. Hudson, a medical sociologist, and an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Director of Community Research for The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) also oversees CINJ's developing survey research and qualitative methods shared resource. She is a co-investigator on an NCI funded randomized control trial that examines the effectiveness of a quality improvement intervention to improve the delivery of preventive colorectal cancer screening in primary care settings. Her other research examines health care provider barriers to cancer screening and cancer clinical trial research for racial/ethnic minorities and other medically underserved populations. Dr. Hudson recently received an NCI-funded Career Development Award (K01) to obtain training and education in cancer survivorship and primary care research. The title of her presentation was "Life After Cancer: Examining Survivor Transitions from Specialist to Primary Care."

Benjamin F. Crabtree, PhD
Professor and Director