$14 Million Funding Award to Support First Statewide Study of Comprehensive Post-Stroke Treatment, Based on Wake …

Posted: Published on February 25th, 2015

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Newswise WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Feb. 25, 2015 The South is known as the Stroke Belt with good reason. Residents of North Carolina are 20 to 40 percent more likely to die of stroke than those living in other parts of the country.

While stroke awareness campaigns educate the public about symptoms and the importance of getting to a hospital quickly, patients and health care providers believe that what happens after stroke patients leave the hospital is just as important as how quickly they arrive.

Today, thanks to a $14 million, five-year award from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) an independent, non-profit, nongovernmental research funding organization created through the Affordable Care Act and authorized by Congress stroke patients across North Carolina will help determine whether longer-term, post-stroke care improves their daily function. A secondary goal is to measure and reduce the degree of caregiver stress.

The award is one of five approved by PCORI pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract.

This award funds the first statewide study of its kind and scope and is being led by principal investigator Pamela W. Duncan, P.T, Ph. D., professor of neurology and senior policy advisor for innovations and transitional outcomes, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, co-investigators Cheryl D. Bushnell, M.D., director of the Wake Forest Baptist Stroke Center and Wayne D. Rosamond, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Partnering in the statewide endeavor are 51 hospitals that are part of the North Carolina Stroke Care Collaborative registry, a partnership between the NC Division of Public Health and UNC-Gillings. Also collaborating is faculty from Eastern Carolina University School of Medicine Center for Health Disparities and the Duke University School of Nursing. The five-year study called COMPASS (COMprehensive Post Acute Stroke Services) will compare patients who receive existing stroke treatment as they are discharged home, to patients who receive comprehensive stroke services once they return home.

Stroke patients are at very high risk of complications once they leave the hospital. They often have physical deficits that make falls a common occurrence and there are cognitive problems that make easy tasks like filling a weekly pill dispenser impossible, said Duncan.

COMPASS deploys nurse practitioners or physician assistants to coordinate discharge services and help in the transition from hospital to home. Within seven to14 days of discharge, these providers see the stroke patient at their home or in a clinic and, with the patients caregiver, develop an individualized care plan for each patient. A trained community coordinator works with local organizations to ensure that recovering patients and caregivers have the services and support they need. There is regular contact with the patient and caregiver after discharge for at least 90 days.

The comprehensive components of COMPASS were determined based on feedback from stroke survivors who shared their experiences and ideas for improved post discharge stroke care with the study investigators.

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$14 Million Funding Award to Support First Statewide Study of Comprehensive Post-Stroke Treatment, Based on Wake ...

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