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UTHSCSA
DEAN’S MESSAGE
The Alliance comprises community stakeholders
from ReACH and the South Central AHEC (Area
Health Education Center), who gather monthly to
discuss health priorities and how the partnership
can work to build capacity for high-quality health-
care delivery systems.
The Community En-
gagement Team of the
Clinical Translation Sci-
ence Award at UTH-
SCSA gathers during the
2015 Community En-
gagement Symposium.
Barbara J. Turner, director of the
ReACH Center, works closely with
Melissa Valerio, dean of the UT
School of Public Health San Antonio
Regional Campus.
offered insights about community needs that will increase the rele- Shruthi Arismendez, MS, who is currently a doctoral candidate in
vance and feasibility of planned programs. The collaboration with the department of psychology at UT San Antonio specializing in
AgriLife Extension programs, which have strong roots in the com- health psychology.
munity, facilitates community engagement activities and increases
the likelihood that community partnerships will be sustainable. This The diabetes intervention program has several components tar-
partnership is leading to pilot projects to operationalize some of the geted to improving diabetes control in patients with an HbA1c
priorities identified by the community members. greater than 9 percent, who are at great risk of complications such
as kidney failure and loss of vision, and to reducing uncontrolled
MONITORING MEDICATIONS hypertension which is the most common cause of heart disease.
In other work on chronic pain management, using data from First, two highly trained nurses and three bilingual case managers
offer personalized support through phone calls, office visits and ed-
more than 200,000 persons enrolled in a national healthcare plan, ucational programs for patients who need to improve their out-
Dr. Turner and Dr. Yuanyuan Liang, an associate professor in the comes. Second, primary care physicians are provided feedback about
department of epidemiology and biostatistics and a ReACH Scholar, the quality of their patients’ care and offered evidence-based guide-
have looked at the risks of medications such as opioids and Valium- lines to utilize when treating patients. Third, patients with mental
type drugs in regard to drug overdose and future hospitalization. In health issues that are preventing them from managing their diabetes
three studies published this year they offer novel ways for physicians and/or hypertension are being managed in collaboration with Dr.
to monitor the amount of medication that a patient has been pre- Donald McGeary, assistant professor in UTHSCSA’s department of
scribed in order to reduce the risk of serious complications related psychiatry. The next step is to bring in peer support, where other
to these drugs. patients suffering from the same medical conditions help coach pa-
tients not meeting their healthcare goals. This real-world advice may
Another important ReACH initiative targets persons with dia- offer additional support to improve these outcomes.
betes through a program funded by the Centers for Medicaid and
Medicare Services (CMS) through the Medicaid 1115 waiver. The TESTING BOOMERS FOR HCV
program assists physicians in internal medicine and in the Family Two other large projects, also funded by the CMS 1115 Medicaid
Health Center at the downtown Robert B. Green campus to reduce
high rates of uncontrolled diabetes and or/uncontrolled hyperten- Waiver, implement national guidelines for testing of all baby
sion in their mostly uninsured Hispanic patient population. This boomers (born 1945-65) for HCV infection and linking those who
ReACH program is guided by a registry database, overseen by are chronically infected with appropriate HCV care. Seventy-five
Continued on page 28
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