StemCell Therapy

HUNTINGTON A health professor and researcher at the Department of Family and Community Health at Marshall University has received a $1.3 million grant to support health care work for high-risk diabetes patients.

Dr. Richard Crespo said the funds from the Appalachian Regional Commission will aid community health workers in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio. He said the grant supports the creation of care coordination teams, which work with patients in their homes and communities.

What community health workers can do is invaluable, especially with patients with chronic conditions who are at high risk, Crespo said. What we are doing with this project is engaging the health insurance companies in coming up with a system for reimbursing the health care agencies who are doing this care coordination for the high-risk patients.

Crespo said community health workers rely on grants for much of their funding, so the project is important to the continued care of patients.

The critical outcome of this grant is sustainable employment for the community health workers, he said.

Crespo estimated the funds will support approximately 25 community health workers care for about 625 high-risk diabetes patients with the goal of providing them with self-management skills to control their condition.

In Kentucky, he is working with Big Sandy Healthcare, which operates in Magoffin, Martin and Pike counties.

Read this article:
Marshall researcher lands grant for diabetes - The Independent

This entry was posted on February 18, 2017 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Diabetes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |