Connecticut Children's Medical Center Archives

2017

Impact Grant

Dr. Eileen Gillan

Hartford, CT

Connecticut Children’s comprehensive Neuro-Oncology program provides the most current and optimal therapies to the children in our care, with unparalleled access to the most current treatments, focused expertise in Neuro-Oncology care, and opportunities for clinical and translational research participation. Leadership investment from the Hyundai Hope on Wheels Impact grant will help Connecticut ChildrenÕs grow into the state of the art program that the children of Connecticut deserve.

In addition to the most comprehensive care, the financial partnership with Hyundai Hope on Wheels will enable Connecticut Children’s to test innovative approaches to the treatment of childhood brain tumors. This program will have as its focus the assessment of innovative therapies that have significant therapeutic potential while minimizing the possibilities for adverse sequelae. Another important goal of this program will be to perform molecular studies that provide insight into the biology of pediatric CNS tumors and to evaluate biologic markers with potential prognostic importance. Led by Dr. Eileen Gillan and with the support of Hyundai Hope on Wheels, these innovative technologies will be accessible to our patients.

2014

Impact Grant

Dr. Natalie Bezler

Hartford, CT

This study proposes to investigate the role of health literacy as a predictor of clinical outcomes in an oncology population. Specifically, we propose to examine whether low health literacy is associated with negative outcomes after bone marrow transplantation, such as hospital readmission, graft-versus-host disease, and inferior survival among bone marrow transplant patients.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Institute of Medicine define health literacy as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.[1] The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that 36% of the United States population had only basic or below basic health literacy skills, while only 12% of the population was categorized as proficient.[2] Researchers have documented a link between low literacy and poor health outcomes in diseases such as diabetes and asthma. For example, one study demonstrated that health literacy was associated with blood glucose control, as measured by hemoglobin A1C levels, and with diabetic complications such as retinopathy.[3] In addition, those with low health literacy have been shown to have higher rates of hospitalization and use of emergency services and to incur higher medical costs.[4, 5] Few studies have investigated the relationship between health literacy and cancer outcomes in the adult population. No studies have investigated the role of health literacy in the pediatric oncology or bone marrow transplant setting.

To address this gap, we have chosen to investigate whether health literacy is associated with hospital readmission and other adverse outcomes among both children and adults undergoing bone marrow transplantation. In this population, medical success is partly reliant on a patient’s and family’s ability to follow a stringent schedule in the post-transplant period. This includes a complex medication regimen, frequent follow-up visits, and strict restrictions on exposure to other people and public places. We hypothesize that low literacy will be associated with worse outcomes in this patient population due to medication errors and decreased medication adherence, decreased compliance with post-transplant restrictions, decreased follow-up compliance, and decreased recognition of worrisome signs and symptoms. We also believe that the findings from this study will be applicable to other oncology populations, given the complexity of health care information presented across sub-disciplines of oncology. The patient population at Connecticut Children’s is particularly vulnerable to difficulties with health communications given the increasing ethnic and socioeconomic diversity.