Most people, especially older adults, manage their health most of the time outside the healthcare setting - at home, work and in the community. Patients routinely leave the doctor with recommendations about things they should do for self-care, but with very poor quality information about where to go. CommunityRx is a health information technology-based innovation funded by the CMS Health Care Innovation Awards (7/1/12-6/30/15 1C1CMS330997) that, starting with the patient-health care provider encounter, facilitates self-care coordination for patients, caregivers, and providers. CommunityRx aims to measurably improve health and health care while reducing health care costs especially in underserved health care settings. This application seeks to shift the clinical practice paradigm from a health care system to a true health system as described by the Institute of Medicine. It also seeks to expand beyond traditional program evaluation approaches by integrating quasi- experimental design and cost-effectiveness analysis to assess individual-level outcomes with agent-based modeling to study CommunityRx as part of a complex adaptive system. The CMS HCIA funding presents the opportunity to apply integrated empirical and systems science research to fully evaluate the impact of the program on the population and to predict the performance and impact of the program in other environments. The proposed research is essential to determining the mechanisms of impact on the important subgroup of middle age and older adults (ages 45-74) targeted by the CommunityRx system and uses agent based modeling to learn how connecting health care and self-care systems can improve health, improve health care, reduce costs, and promote economic strength of communities. Empirical data from older adults will be used with data collected under the CMS funding, evidence from the peer-review literature, and expert opinion to model assumptions about younger participants and the general population to perform agent-based modeling. We hypothesize that the impact of CommunityRx extends beyond individual program participants as information about self-care resources is distributed through social networks according to simple rules. Specifically, this research aims to 1) evaluate the impact of CommunityRx on health care utilization, cost, health, and patient-centered outcomes for program participants compared to controls; 2) examine the flow and spread of information to and through primary agents including: program participants, community health information experts, healthcare providers, and community-based service providers (businesses and organizations providing self-care resources); and 3) build and use an agent-based model to test the distributed impact, including economic effects, of CommunityRx system adoption on the demonstration area and predict performance over time by conducting experiments that vary assumptions about agent, environment, and population-level characteristics.

Public Health Relevance

Significant public investment has been made to build CommunityRx, an innovative health information technology with a warm human touch that connects patients and health care providers, via electronic medical record platforms, to high quality information about community resources to support self-care. The proposed research is essential to determining the mechanisms of impact on the important subgroup of middle age and older adults (ages 45-74) targeted by the CommunityRx system and will advance methods for assessing large- scale health care interventions by creating a science-based complex systems approach to program evaluation that incorporates agent-based modeling.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AG047869-05
Application #
9519779
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer
Karraker, Amelia Wilkes
Project Start
2014-09-01
Project End
2019-05-31
Budget Start
2018-06-01
Budget End
2019-05-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2018
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Chicago
Department
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
005421136
City
Chicago
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60637
Tung, Elizabeth L; Gunter, Kathryn E; Bergeron, Nyahne Q et al. (2018) Cross-Sector Collaboration in the High-Poverty Setting: Qualitative Results from a Community-Based Diabetes Intervention. Health Serv Res 53:3416-3436
Frerichs, Leah; Hassmiller Lich, Kristen; Young, Tiffany L et al. (2018) Development of a Systems Science Curriculum to Engage Rural African American Teens in Understanding and Addressing Childhood Obesity Prevention. Health Educ Behav 45:423-434
Tung, Elizabeth L; Wroblewski, Kristen E; Boyd, Kelly et al. (2018) Police-Recorded Crime and Disparities in Obesity and Blood Pressure Status in Chicago. J Am Heart Assoc 7:
Qato, Dima Mazen; Wilder, Jocelyn; Zenk, Shannon et al. (2017) Pharmacy accessibility and cost-related underuse of prescription medications in low-income Black and Hispanic urban communities. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003) 57:162-169.e1
Makelarski, Jennifer A; Abramsohn, Emily; Benjamin, Jasmine H et al. (2017) Diagnostic Accuracy of Two Food Insecurity Screeners Recommended for Use in Health Care Settings. Am J Public Health 107:1812-1817
Gopalan, Anjali; Makelarski, Jennifer A; Garibay, Lori B et al. (2016) Health-Specific Information and Communication Technology Use and Its Relationship to Obesity in High-Poverty, Urban Communities: Analysis of a Population-Based Biosocial Survey. J Med Internet Res 18:e182
Lindau, Stacy Tessler; Vickery, Katherine Diaz; Choi, HwaJung et al. (2016) A Community-Powered, Asset-Based Approach to Intersectoral Urban Health System Planning in Chicago. Am J Public Health 106:1872-8
Tung, Elizabeth L; Peek, Monica E; Makelarski, Jennifer A et al. (2016) Adult BMI and Access to Built Environment Resources in a High-Poverty, Urban Geography. Am J Prev Med 51:e119-e127
Lindau, Stacy T; Makelarski, Jennifer; Abramsohn, Emily et al. (2016) CommunityRx: A Population Health Improvement Innovation That Connects Clinics To Communities. Health Aff (Millwood) 35:2020-2029
Frerichs, L; Ataga, O; Corbie-Smith, G et al. (2016) Child and youth participatory interventions for addressing lifestyle-related childhood obesity: a systematic review. Obes Rev 17:1276-1286