CLIC Study Progress 2

Winter Texans & ASPREE 2

2010 PBRN Conference

Highlights 3

2011 Research Priorities 3

New Board Members 4

New STARNet Leadership 4

Human Subject Training 4

Spring 2011 Issue

www.starnetpbrn.com

At-a-Glance:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I have accepted an exciting position with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Qual-

ity (AHRQ) in Washington DC effective March 14, 2011. I will work on the Patient-

Centered Medical Home, Primary Care Re-design, and support for Practice-Based Re-

search. They want a physician-scientist but someone who has his feet firmly planted in

the reality of what it is like to deliver high quality primary care day-in and day-out. So I

will return to San Antonio periodically to continue my research. Also, I plan to eventu-

ally return to San Antonio, my home.

Please join me in welcoming the newly appointed STARNet Director, Robert L. Ferrer,

MD. Dr. Ferrer brings a wealth of experience working with primary care clinics and a

strong research background. I am confident that he will continue to provide STARNet

with the support and nurturing it needs to continue its rapid growth.

This was an opportunity I could not pass up. This is not

―good-bye‖ but ―see you later.‖ I have loved working with

each of you and will miss you terribly. If you are ever in the

DC area you MUST contact me so that we can visit and catch

up!

Sincerely,

Michael L. Parchman, MD, MPH

Please join us for the Spring STARNet Membership Meeting where we plan to develop a research agenda

on the metabolic syndrome in adolescents, the top voted research priority by our practicing primary care

members during this past October 2010 membership meeting. This year, we will have videoconference

available from the Harlingen and Corpus Christi areas! Please contact Marisa Rodriguez by calling (210)

567-7892 or by email at rodriguezm21@uthscsa.edu for more information and to reserve your seat today!

Thursday, March 31, 2011, 6:30 pm – 8:40 pm

UT Health Science Center at San Antonio

7703 Floyd Curl Drive (Medical Center area)

Room: 110-112 Academic Administration Building (AAB)

San Antonio, TX 78229

Spring Membership Meeting on 3/31/11!

Not a “Good-bye” but “See You Later”

Update Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network

STARNet Supporting Partner:

Important Research Updates and Activities

STARNet Practices are Reaping the

Benefits of Project CLIC Participation Project CLIC, Clinical Informatics Collaborative, is increasing the

capacity to engage primary care clinicians in the research enterprise

and has eased translational research conducted within STARNet by

utilizing a new frontier of health information technology.

CINA is a Dallas-based company that is being utilized in project

CLIC and provides data extraction, translation, and loading func-

tions from various electronic health records (EHRs) to create a stan-

dardized Clinical Data Repository (CDR) at each practice location.

They have the know-how to implement evidence-based guidelines

on a patient-specific basis to:

produce point-of-care reminders

provide reporting services on data from the individual CDRs

maintained at each practice location and,

aggregate and transfer data across practices to a centralized

data repository (identified or de-identified) as allowed under

our agreement with the practices.

18 sites within San Antonio, Pearsall, Seguin, New Braunfels, and

Uvalde are all currently participating in Project CLIC and four (4)

more sites are being considered for participation. Since the project

is slated to end in August, 2011, any site with EHR’s that have

already been mapped by CINA would be the optimal candi-

dates for those remaining four slots in the study:

∙ Allscripts Enterprise ∙ Meditech

∙ e-MD’s ∙ Epic Ambulatory EMH

∙ Allscripts Professional ∙ MisysEHR

∙ GE Centricity Ambulatory EMR ∙ NextGen

∙ Varian ∙ Pratice Partner

∙ eClinical Works

With health information security being at the core of Project CLIC,

another element of this study is the creation of a Data Governance

Committee group that will consist of a clinician, office administra-

tor, patient advocate, a statistician and representatives of the re-

search and information technology areas. This committee will

oversee the policies and procedures of all the data transfers and

research that is forthcoming.

The most exciting aspect of Project CLIC is that it is laying the

foundation for a multitude of positive ways to improve patient care

and opens up avenues for future research that can truly help patients

in our community.

If your practice has any of the above named EMRs that has

been operational for the past six months and you are interested

in participating please contact Monica Galvan, CLIC Practice

Facilitator, galvanm@uthscsa.edu or call (210) 567-7858.

Winter Texans in the LRGV and ASPREE The Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) study that

aims to assess whether aspirin can, not only prolong life, but a life

free of physical disability and/or dementia in healthy older people, is

currently recruiting participants in San Antonio and Harlingen. The

ASPREE team from Harlingen and San Antonio were invited to at-

tend the 18th Annual Winter Texan Expo that was held in the

McAllen Convention Center on January 11th and 12th, 2011.

Every year between the months of October and March over 150,000

Winter Texans visit the Rio Grande Valley making it their temporary

residence during the winter months. Participation at this event re-

sulted in 150+ interested potential participants for ASPREE. The

coordinated efforts of Vanessa Benavidez and Juan Reyna from the

Clinical Research Unit (CRU) at the Regional Academic Health

Center (RAHC) and Melissa Navarro and Marisa Rodriguez from

the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, dis-

persed 1,500 ASPREE tote bags and disseminated information on

the ASPREE study. Not only did the event provide an opportunity

to recruit, but allowed members of the community to meet the

ASPREE team. Hopefully, next year’s event will be even more suc-

cessful with the addition of the new ASPREE personnel in San An-

tonio, Sandra Idar and Gerald Perez.

If you would like more information on ASPREE, please call

(877) 524-3265.

Vanessa Benavidez, ASPREE Project Coordinator at the RAHC—Clinical

Research Unit answers some of Charlene Peterson’s questions on ASPREE

Page 2

The Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) Resource Center hosted

its 2nd Annual PBRN Convocation on October 15th and 16th, 2010 at the

Horizon Hill Conference Center in San Antonio. Over 200 community

clinicians and investigators attended our timely program: Discovering

Patient-Oriented Evidence that Matters.

Participants noted that this was our best conference yet! As a result of

attending our conference, clinicians took with them a wealth of knowl-

edge. Some of the highlights from the 2010 conference included:

Session on how to design studies within your network in the Pre-

Conference Research Methods 101 lecture

Early research findings were shared from the different network

research projects. The discussions involved various topics that

included:

domestic violence patterns

helping patients handle influenza

barriers in access to care

inefficiencies and savings in health care

diabetes risk assessment and health care utilization

―difficult‖ psychiatric patients

barriers to medication adherence

untreated depression in patients with chronic low back

pain.

Perspectives from a dentist, psychiatrist, patient and primary care

clinician were shared during a multidisciplinary panel discussion

addressing ―Sleepless in San Antonio: Multiple Perspectives on

Sleep Disorders.‖ Participants discussed ―gaps‖ in knowledge that

could potentially be addressed in the PBRN setting.

Research priorities were determined within the individual network

sessions.

Networking and disseminating research findings during the re-

search poster reception where over 30 projects were highlighted.

This year’s 2011 3rd Annual PBRN Convocation has been sched-

uled to take place on October 21—22, 2011. Mark your calendars

and please join us at this years conference which will be focusing the

growing obesity epidemic plaguing Texas, especially our South Texas

communities and Hispanic populations.

2nd Annual PBRN Convocation, October 2010

Highlights on the 2010 PBRN Conference

“Sleepless in San Antonio” panelists discussed issues of concern from their

specialty’s perspective. Panel consisted of (left to right): Jon Casey (sleep

apnea patient), Lloyd Van Winkle, MD (Primary Care), Javier Garcia, DDS

(Dental), Jeffrey Cordes, MD (VA Mental Health), and Ashok Kumar, MD

(Residency)

New STARNet 2011 Research Priorities

During this year’s STARNet meeting, we had attendance by many

active STARNet members and other primary care practicing clini-

cians. As a result, we now have new members actively participating

in STARNet research studies. Please join us in welcoming Drs. War-

ren Albrecht, Dorothy Overman, A. Vicki Rickerson, Sharif Eusufzai

and Neela K. Patel who practice out of the New Braunfels and San

Antonio areas.

A key component of this conference for our primary care network, is

the STARNet break-out session held on the 2nd day of the conference.

During the STARNet membership meeting, the clinicians address the

topics they feel are pertinent to their practice and provide input on the

type of research that will take place in the STARNet practices for the

coming year. A consensus of the top five new 2011 research priorities

for STARNet are:

1. Metabolic syndrome deficiency among the teenage population

2. Vitamin D Deficiency—pre-diabetes / triglycerides

3. Increasing education on eliminating television and/or computer

use in a child’s bedroom and reduction of usage hours

4. Sleep apnea and monitoring improvement of A1C

5. Who originated the opoid?

As a result, our Spring STARNet membership meeting’s agenda,

(scheduled to take place on March 31, 2011), will focus on developing

a research agenda on the top voted topic, Metabolic syndrome among

the adolescent population.

Please contact Marisa F. Rodriguez at (210) 567-7892 for more infor-

mation on STARNet and the upcoming Spring membership meeting.

Jim May, CEO of CINA, an innovative technology company, presented infor-

mation on the Electronic Health Record (EHR) to the STARNet membership.

Page 3

STARNet Leadership Changes

Welcome New STARNet Board Members! Last year was a positive year for STARNet. We experienced growth in our membership and pro-

ject participation numbers. We not only increased our membership numbers within the San An-

tonio and surrounding areas but also within the Corpus Christi and Lower Rio Grande Valley

communities. Significant changes in our network's leadership have also taken place.

Our STARNet Board of Directors now have two new members with the addition of Drs. Abigail

Barrera and Michael Mann. Both Drs. Barrera and Mann specialize in family medicine and re-

spectively practice out of the S. San Antonio and Bulverde communities. Thank you Drs. Barrera

and Mann for your commitment to practice-based research and for sharing STARNet’s goal of

improving healthcare delivery in South Texas!

Robert L. Ferrer, MD, MPH

STARNet Director

Raquel Romero, MD, MPH

Associate Director Walter Calmbach, MD, MPH

Director Emeritus

From left to right: Drs. Michael Mann (Bulverde), Ramon Reyes (San Antonio), Mitch

Finnie (San Antonio), Lloyd Van Winkle (Castroville), Abigail Barrera (San Antonio),

Solomon Paley (San Antonio), Carlos Campos (New Braunfels), and Abilio Muñoz

(Austin)

STARNet BOARD MEMBERS

Abigail Barrera, MD

San Antonio, TX

2010—2014

Carlos Campos, MD,

MPH, FAAFP

New Braunfels, TX

2008—2012

Mitch Finnie, MD,

FAAFP

San Antonio, TX 2009—2013

Michael Mann, MD

Bulverde, TX

2010—2014

Abilio Muñoz, MD,

FAAFP

Austin, TX 2008—2012

Solomon Paley, MD

San Antonio, TX 2009—2013

Ramon Reyes, MD,

FAAFP San Antonio, TX

2011—2015

Lloyd Van Winkle, MD,

FAAFP Castroville, TX

2011—2015

STARNet Directors and Staff

Marisa F. Rodriguez, BS

STARNet Coordinator

Need to take the

Human Subjects Training?

Access training materials at:

http://familymed.uthscsa.edu/starnet08/training.asp

or contact Marisa Rodriguez at:

Ph: 210-567-7892

Email: rodriguezm21@uthscsa.edu

Page 4