As a predominantly rural state, Kentucky leads the nation in many pediatric and adult chronic andenvironmentally-related diseases and ?ranks nationally? in low educational achievement. These adverse factorscombine to make Kentuckians especially unhealthy residents with a high prevalence of obesity, diabetes,smoking, alcohol use, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, etc. Many of these diseases are environmentallyrelated to poor nutrition, obesity, smoking, drug abuse and work-place exposures. Kentucky also leads thenation in the percentage of pediatric populations with special health care needs. Prior work has shown thatmost adult diseases begin in childhood and some begin during intrauterine exposure, making childhood theideal time for intervention with the goal of improving health outcomes into adulthood. Improving healthcare outcomes and wellness in children is contingent on expanding high quality clinicalresearch to include more diverse populations. Pediatricians at the University of Louisville (UofL) with ourHealthcare Partners serve a highly diverse patient population that includes the rural and urban poor, a uniqueAppalachian community, refugees and numerous ethnic minorities. In order to better serve this population, wepropose to build upon our current programs, expand our bidirectional community engagement efforts,collaborate with other institutions on pediatric clinical trials through the IDeA Pediatric Trials Network, andcollaborate with ECHO and CHEAR sites to advance healthcare for children. The Kentucky-Pediatric IDeA Research Center (K-PIRC), as part of the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical TrialNetwork, will make it possible for 1) underserved rural and urban infants, children and adolescents toparticipate in clinical research; 2) junior investigators to be trained in clinical research and communityengagement, improve the health of both children and adults in Kentucky through this research, and developtheir academic career; and 3) create a regional network of partners to sustain this clinical research initiative.The four primary focus areas of research are 1) upper and lower airway disease; 2) obesity; 3) pre-, peri- andpostnatal outcomes; and 4) neurodevelopmental outcomes. These primary focus areas have a highprevalence in Kentucky therefore K-PIRC will enable strengthening current collaborations and accelerate thedevelopment of new networks within the state through bidirectional community engagement and feedback tosupport pediatric clinical research. Ultimately through these efforts the health outcomes of Kentucky childrenand adults will improve and a sustainable pediatric clinical research workforce locally and nationally will beestablished.
The Kentucky-Pediatric IDeA Research Center (K-PIRC); as part of the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical TrialNetwork; will make it possible for: 1) underserved rural and urban infants; children and adolescents toparticipate in clinical research; 2) junior investigators to be trained in clinical research and communityengagement; improve the health of both children and adults in Kentucky through this research; and developtheir academic career; and 3) create a regional network of partners to sustain this clinical research initiative.The four primary focus areas are 1) upper and lower airway disease; 2) obesity; 3) pre-; peri- and postnataloutcomes; and 4) neurodevelopmental. These primary focus areas are highly prevalent in Kentucky thereforethe efforts of the K-PIRC in collaboration with our community partners will improve the health outcomes ofKentucky children and adults.
| Snowden, Jessica; Darden, Paul; Palumbo, Paul et al. (2018) The institutional development award states pediatric clinical trials network: building research capacity among the rural and medically underserved. Curr Opin Pediatr 30:297-302 |
