$1.3 million URI project fuels health system transformation

The University of Rhode Island is transforming the healthcare workforce in the region, enhancing the care provided residents and, as a result, delivering federal dollars back to the state. Part of those funds are being used to fund additional research and continuing education programs on campus.

Through its education of the next generation of healthcare workers — especially in the Colleges of Health Sciences, Nursing and Pharmacy that make up the Academic Health Collaborative — URI is fulfilling a critical need in improving the future of healthcare. That public service is credited toward the state of Rhode Island’s investment in the Medicare program, which is matched by federal funds to be reinvested in state health programs through the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

The Health System Transformation Project has the potential to generate as much as $130 million for the state over the next few years, according to Bryan Blissmer, director of URI’s Institute for Integrated Health and Innovation, which is spearheading the university’s involvement in the project. For 2018, more than $1.3 million will flow back to URI, funding 11 projects in four categories: continuing education, interprofessional experiential opportunities, new educational models and new career opportunities.

“Faculty members from across the collaborative are partnering on projects that will enhance health education and improve health care in general throughout the region,” Blissmer said. “And they’re not just in the collaborative. The College of Business is also involved. We want more of that. We want to continue to support the faculty and develop new collaborations within and outside the Health Collaborative.”

The funded projects include:

• Enhancement of a Home-based Primary Care Program — College of Nursing, Denise Coppa, $152,909.
• Interpersonal Team Education and Evaluation — College of Health Sciences, Phil Clark, $268,625.
• Teaching Health Care management Core Concepts: Core Concepts of Health Transformation — College of Business, Lathryn Jervis, $47,206.
• Health System Transformation Concepts: Self-paced Learning for Health Care Professionals — College of Nursing, Betty Rambur, $119,513.
• 5-Year Master’s Degree in Mental and Behavioral Health Counseling — College of Health Sciences, Mark Robbins, $61,538.
• The RI Generating Healthcare Transformation Project — College of Health Sciences, Kathleen Melanson, $150,470.
• Establishing a URI Interprofessional Collaboration Center of Excellence — College of Pharmacy, Mary-Jane Kanaczet, $156,146.
• Nurses for Obesity Prevention: A Need for Education — College of Health Sciences, Alison Tovar, $66,683.
• Developing and Training Health Professionals in RI Communities — College of Health Sciences, Brian Quilliam, $85,193.
• URI Academic Collaborations Officers embedded at RI Department of Health — College of Pharmacy, Jeffrey Bratberg, $60,481.
• Interprofessional Workforce Development — College of Health Sciences, Lyn Stein, $138,015.