Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are enormous public health problems, but there confinues to be a gap between scienfific knowledge about AUDs and the knowledge base of the health care and justice system workforces. Further, there has been erosion within the legal community of the understanding of the legal theory covering the status of animals in agriculture and in research. The increasing amount of electronic data related to AUDs is fragmented and not easily accessible to health care workers. Further, there are emerging issues within the legal community of the understanding of the legal theories covering biomedical research involving human and animal subjects. There is a crifical need to improve the understanding of alcoholism as a disease by health care providers and members of the judicial system, to improve the recognifion of AUDs through screening approaches, and to facilitate animal research supporting our understanding of AUDs. The objective and long term goal of the Translafional Research and Science Educafion component has been to advance alcoholism research to prevent alcohol-related problems and improve the treatment of alcohol-afflicted individuals. Our central hypotheses are threefold: 1) that by improving the educafion of health care providers regarding AUDs and providing them with real fime informaflon about their paflents'problems with alcohol use, we will improve care and decrease the harm related to alcohol abuse;2) that by educaflng members of the judicial system about research in AUDs, we will improve: (a) the handling of legal cases related to alcohol and (b) the court orders regarding the ability of researchers to carry out research requiring certificates of confidentiality;3) that dissemination of legal theory related to animals'status as property to law students and judges will counter the efforts of animal rights activists to block the use of animals in research.
The specific aims of this component will address each of these needs, extending established educafional programs and taking advantage of unique medical informaflcs competencies of the IU School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute.
Alcohol use disorders have a huge impact on health and society. The Translational Science and Education Component will address this through education of medical students, residents, social workers, and members of the legal professions and use of electronic health records to identify patients earlier in their course.
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