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In This Issue:
LeRoi Hicks, MD, Honored With Robert Wood Johnson Funding
LeRoi Hicks, MD, MPH, General Medicine, is one of 11 researchers nationwide to receive a four-year grant from the 2002 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Minority Medical Faculty Development Program.
The award supports Hicks’ salary for four years, as he investigates and seeks to improve the disparity between high blood pressure treatment and outcomes for minorities and non-minorities. Mortality rates from heart disease for African Americans is 50 percent higher than that of whites, and Mexican-Americans are more likely to have uncontrolled hypertension than are whites, according to the sixth report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure.
Working under the supervision of mentors David Bates, MD, MSc., chief, General Medicine, and John Ayanian, MD, MPP, Hicks will study whether outpatient clinics affiliated with the hospital follow recommended guidelines for treatment of high blood pressure. In its second phase, the study will introduce interventions, such as reminders of the guidelines, to the clinics. The third phase of the study will involve the introduction of nurse case managers to see patients between visits. Ultimately, Hicks’ goal is to achieve equity among both the prevalence and control of high blood pressure among minority patients and white patients.