October 17, 2019

CDC Continues Funding for HPRC to Participate in Two Thematic Networks — CPCRN & MEW

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is funding the Health Promotion Research Center (HPRC) with $3.14 million over five years to continue participate in with two national research networks — the Cancer Prevention and Control Network (CPCRN) and the Managing Epilepsy Well (MEW) Network.

Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN)

HPRC is a member center of the CDC’s CPCRN and contributes to the national network as part of a regional alliance known as the Alliance for Reducing Cancer, Northwest (ARC NW). HPRC has been a member center of CPCRN since the CDC established the network in 2002.

ARC NW members and affiliates are from multiple regional organizations, including the University of Washington, Washington State Department of Health, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Public Health-Seattle & King County, and Kaiser Permanente.

As part of CPCRN, ARC NW aims to increase cancer screening rates, especially among underserved populations, and better understand why recommended strategies for increasing screening rates may or may not be successful in certain communities or populations.

“Cancer is the leading cause of death among adults ages 40 to 79, while screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers are well below national targets, especially among populations with low-incomes, people who are uninsured or underinsured, and/or those with limited-English proficiency,” said Linda Ko, co-principal investigator for ARC NW. “New approaches to improve cancer screening rates in these communities will lead to earlier cancer detection and save lives.”

With $1.5 million from the CDC, HPRC will support ARC NW research efforts with two projects.

In the first project, ARC NW researchers will create a structured training to support community-based organizations in using evidence-based cancer prevention and control strategies. Researchers will then study the potential impacts of the training on increasing screening rates among rural and/or underserved communities. Ko will lead this project as its principal investigator. She is a behavioral scientist with Fred Hutch and the director of the Hutch’s Health Communication Research Center. She is also an associate professor with the UW Department of Health Services* in the School of Public Health.

With the second project, ARC NW will focus on increasing colorectal cancer screening rates by improving the delivery of in-home fecal testing kits. Allison Cole, a co-investigator on this grant, will lead the project. She is a family physician at Harborview Medical Center and an associate professor with the UW Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine.

Both projects emphasize critical community-research partnerships and include valuable training opportunities for early career investigators.

To accomplish this research, ARC NW will grow and sustain its local, regional, and national collaborations with researchers, health departments, community health centers, and community-based organizations already working with underserved communities.

Managing Epilepsy Well (MEW) Network

HPRC is a collaborating center with the network, which works closely with the CDC and community-based organizations to develop, evaluate, and promote programs that improve the quality of life for those living with epilepsy through self-management.

As a collaborating center of the network, HPRC will receive $1.64 million to support MEW in increasing evidence for and use of its self-management programs.

MEW researchers will specifically look at expanding the reach of the Program of Active Consumer Engagement in Self-management (PACES) with Spanish-speaking and Hispanic populations at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. In addition to this, researchers will investigate the program’s impact on a wider range of distinct medical outcomes, seizure frequency, medical adherence, and adverse epilepsy-related events with estimated costs.

Investigators with the project will also modify PACES for a pilot study with English- and Spanish-speaking adolescents, ages 14 to 18. The English-speaking program will be developed and tested at Seattle Children’s Epilepsy Center, and the dual-language program will be at UCLA Pediatric Epilepsy Program.

With PACES, participants develop coping and goal-setting strategies that improve overall and discrete aspects of quality of life, epilepsy self-management and efficacy, and anxiety and depression. The program provides five key components — education about epilepsy, training and practice for specific strategies to cope with stress, personalized goal setting and support, qualified facilitators (an epilepsy mental health professional and a trained peer with epilepsy), and a group program that can be attended in-person or by phone.

“PACES and the network’s self-management programs really attend to the whole person,” said Robert Fraser, a co-principal investigator for the project. “They not only assist with medical stabilization, but also psychosocial integration and community engagement. In addition, they are truly participative, where patients work in collaboration with epilepsy specialists and contribute to their own stability.”

Fraser is a professor in the UW Department of Rehabilitation, joint with the Department of Neurological Surgery and Department of Neurology, which are all within the School of Medicine.

Erica Johnson will be the co-principal investigator alongside Fraser on this project.

“PACES is unique because it was designed on the basis of what patients with epilepsy said they wanted in a self-management program,” Johnson said. “It often serves as an important first experience for adults with epilepsy to meet others with the disability and learn skills to solve psychosocial and medical problems that often happen as a result of having epilepsy.”

Johnson is a rehabilitation psychologist and a certified rehabilitation counselor, as well as a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society. Outside her research program, Johnson is in private practice in Lynnwood, Washington, where she conducts psychosocial and neuropsychological assessments, and therapy with individuals with various disabilities, such as traumatic brain injury, blindness and low vision, chronic pain, and post-traumatic stress.

* The Department of Health Services is now the Department of Health Systems and Population Health. This name change took place July 1, 2021.