CHR Supports KPNW’s Center for Black Health & Wellness
Stories - June 21, 2024
By Jill Pope, Senior Scientific Editor
Britta Torgrimson-Ojerio, PhD, RN
To deliver the best care to patients, Kaiser Permanente Northwest health system leaders rely on research expertise from the KP Center for Health Research. CHR’s Learning Health System (LHS) Team supports health plan leaders with a broad range of projects. Currently, the team is supporting KPNW’s Center for Black Health and Wellness, set to open in 2024.
What is a Learning Health System? “A health system in which internal data and experience are systematically integrated with external evidence, and that knowledge is put into practice,” according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
CHR’s LHS Team is as an important resource for KPNW, which serves more than 620,000 members in Oregon and Southwest Washington. In addition, CHR has actively trained KPNW health system leaders in LHS principles and quality improvement methods and tools in recent years. Demonstrating the value research brings to health care was a top priority for Lucy Savitz, PhD, MBA, CHR’s director from 2017 to 2022.
As a result, says Britta Torgrimson-Ojerio, PhD, RN, who leads the LHS Team at CHR, “Because they are already familiar with CHR, people in the health system know to contact our LHS Team. Our team can advise them on how to proceed, help them understand if it qualifies as research vs. quality work, understand if this is Human Subjects research, help them design research questions, and determine who should own the evaluation –KP’s research analyst group, or staff at CHR.”
The team works with KPNW on 30 to 50 consultations and projects per year, including rapid literature reviews, consulting on study design and analysis plans, data analysis led by staff at CHR, working with KP analysts to conduct data analysis, consulting on regulatory compliance issues, serving on key committees in the KPNW health system, and investigator matchmaking—finding an established researcher with the right expertise to lead a given project.
Supporting the Center for Black Health and Wellness
For the past two years, the LHS Team has supported KPNW leaders as they prepare to launch a new Center for Black Health and Wellness (CBHW), slated to open in 2024.
The CBHW, situated within the East Interstate Medical Office in Portland, Oregon, will initially provide KP members with a new option for primary care. Eliminating disparities in health is a high priority for Kaiser Permanente, and research shows that Black Americans experience racial disparities in health, including shorter life expectancy, higher rates of chronic conditions, higher maternal mortality, and lower screening rates for cancer and heart disease than White Americans. However, studies also show that Black patients have better outcomes when they have Black clinicians and care teams that provide culturally responsive care.
The new center will focus on providing culturally competent care to Black patients and seek to address health disparities. Angelette Hamilton, MBA, Program Director/Manager for the new center, believes the model holds great promise: “It has the potential to impact generations, normalize and influence participation in medical trials, medical research, and show how healthcare systems can provide innovative, tailored care and services in partnership,” she says. Hamilton has played a pivotal role in the development of the center, in partnership with Permanente Leader Ashley Gipson, MHA, and Dr. Jane Akpamgbo, MD.
As Hamilton and other leaders planned the center, CHR’s LHS Team was brought in to support the effort. In early 2022, Jason Scott (MPP, MPH; formerly with CHR) conducted literature reviews to identify disparities in treatment and outcomes among the Black population nationally. Since 2023, Research Associate Cheryl Johnson, Ed M, has been involved with the CBHW, serving on the East Interstate Readiness Team and providing feedback on the center’s development. Also in 2023, Jamie Thompson, MA, MPH, a Senior Research Associate with expertise in developing health education materials tailored to specific communities, worked closely with CBHW leadership to produce four culturally appropriate colorectal cancer screening videos. Team members Sara Gille, MPH, PMP, and Sacha Reich, PMP, have served as project managers, shepherding projects to completion.
Evaluating the New Center
Once the center opens, the LHS Team will evaluate how well it is meeting its goals. CHR Investigators David Mosen, PhD, and Amanda Petrik, PhD, will conduct a quantitative evaluation to better understand whether disparities in quality of care have decreased among Black patients compared to White patients. They will also seek external funding to determine whether the center is effectively closing care gaps and improving patients’ long-term blood sugar control and blood pressure control.
LHS Team member Dea Papajorgji-Taylor, MA, MPH, is applying her qualitative research expertise to develop surveys that assess patients’ acceptance of the new clinic. She will also assess how patient experiences align with the clinic’s priorities in delivering culturally tailored and compassionate care, and will capture patient stories, which can help identify areas for improvement in service delivery.
Hamilton speaks highly of working with the LHS team, noting, “The collaboration and partnership with the Center for Black Health and Wellness, CHR and the LHS team has been and will prove to be invaluable. This partnership aims to eradicate health disparities, partner with and educate patients on informed decision-making, and improve health outcomes.” As the new center opens and as evaluations get underway, CHR’s LHS Team will continue to work closely with KPNW leaders, sharing their research findings to improve patient care.
Learning Health System Team at CHR
Sara Gille, Project Manager
Cheryl Johnson, Research Associate
David Mosen, Investigator, Health Systems/Health Services Research
Dea Papajorgji-Taylor, Research Associate
Amanda Petrik, Investigator, Health Systems/Health Services Research
Sacha Reich, Project Manager
Jamie Thompson, Senior Research Associate
Britta Torgrimson-Ojerio, Nurse Researcher, Director of Research & Clinical Trials Unit