Care provider performing blood pressure screening on patient

topic area 

Cardiovascular Health

location

West and Southwest Philadelphia

goal

Together for West Philadelphia (TfWP) partners with healthcare systems, community-based organizations, academic institutions, and public and private stakeholders to achieve equitable health outcomes for West Philadelphians.

description

As part of the Clinical and Translational Research Award (CTSA) Community and Collaboration core, the ASCVD Risk Reduction Initiative brings together a multi-disciplinary team to design and conduct a series of pilot studies that adapt and refine existing evidence to develop effective approaches to reducing ASCVD risk. The program adapts intervention approaches shown efficacious in other contexts and tests their efficacy in reducing ASCVD risk using strategies to reach patients outside of clinic-based settings. The focus is on two very different populations at elevated risk of ASCVD: (1) patients in West and Southwest Philadelphia who are predominantly African American and at risk of poorly controlled blood pressure (HTN); (2) Patients in Lancaster County. 

Two pilot projects under this initiative include:

  • Gamification and Social Incentives to Augment MEdication Adherence (GAME Adherence) tests the effectiveness of a gamification intervention paired with social incentives (support and accountability) to improve medication adherence in patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia in West Philadelphia.
  • SupportBP 2.0 evaluates the effectiveness of an opt-out approach to recruitment into a remote monitoring program for the management of hypertension, versus the more conventional opt-in model of recruitment. 

impact

Penn's program aims to expand the engagement of communities of providers, patients, and citizens into all phases of research across the continuum of clinical trials, patient research, and community participatory research; they make a specific effort to engage and involve these groups in ASCVD risk reduction initiatives that will identify, recruit, and treat hypertensive and hyperlipidemic Penn Medicine patients in urban and rural settings. 

status

Ongoing

initiative leads

Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton School
Alexander Fanaroff, MD, Perelman School of Medicine
Shivan J. Mehta, MD, MBA, MSHP, Perelman School of Medicine Karen Glanz, PhD, MPH, Perelman School of Medicine

partners