The Henry Ford Health System's Center for Medical Treatment Effectiveness Programs is seeking full center status. As its central theme, the Center is dedicated to the development, evaluation, and implementation of culturally appropriate partnerships between patients, health care providers and the community. Partnerships, based on the concept of empowerment, are designed to improve health outcomes and increase the efficiency of care for African American patients with asthma and diabetes. Interventions are conducted among African Americans served by the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) and other community providers. Outcomes include multi-dimensional measures of quality of life, health services utilization, and morbidity. Planned effectiveness trials include: asthma and diabetes empowerment programs for adults to be tested in local African American churches; asthma education programs for African American teenagers and adults identified through the HFHS and community emergency departments; and a diabetes information hotline for adult family members of children with diabetes. These patient-centered effectiveness trials address disease knowledge and management, perception of the disease, the need for culturally appropriate interventions, and patient empowerment. Center staff disseminate trial results to the clinical, research, and lay communities through publications and a speakers bureau. Through meetings with the management of the HFHS and other health care institutions, newsletters, and presentations at departmental Grand Rounds the Center encourages the HFHS and community health care providers to implement effective treatment interventions identified in Center effectiveness trials. Center training activities include: providing hands-on-research experience, mentoring, and planning for educational partnerships with local academic institutions for minority staff physicians, residents and fellows, nurses, and pharmacy students. The training will increase awareness of the need for minority research and develop trainees' interest in and understanding of medical treatment effectiveness research. The Center's technical assistance efforts target investigators developing minority research programs and to state or federal agencies needing information for policy development. Community outreach efforts include participation in local health fairs, in health related church activities, and in the Michigan Department of Public Health minority health month events.
