NUMC Cardiology Department to Serve as Research Site

Nassau University Medical Center's cardiology department will serve as a research site to study the benefits of telehealth for minority patients suffering from chronic heart failure.

The North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, approved to receive a $1.35 million research award from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, made the selection.

The cardiology department is led by Amgad Makaryus, MD.

“It is crucial that we find new, improved and cost effective approaches to caring for minorities with chronic heart failure, with patients taking a more active role to improve their health,” Dr. Makaryus said. “We are hoping through this study to have patients take a more active role in their care, with resulting improvements in their health and quality of life.”

The study will examine whether telehealth programs are effective self-management tools for patients with chronic disease. Through the use of video and other telecommunications technologies, the team will remotely monitor and check vital signs in the homes of elderly African-American and Latino patients following their discharge from NUMC.

In a letter to Dr. Makaryus, Renee Pekmezaris, PhD, vice president of Community Health and Health Services Research at the NS-LIJ Health System, wrote: “I am pleased to announce that the research project 'Telehealth Self-Management Program in Older Adults Living with Heart Failure in Health Disparity Communities' has been approved for funding by PCORI. This study will exclusively enroll African-American and Latino patients upon discharge from NUMC. The prevalence of heart failure is more than 25 percent greater among African-Americans than Whites, and is growing rapidly in Latino populations as well.”

Dr. Pekmezaris will lead the research project. Dr. Makaryus and NuHealth’s heart failure team, which includes Deborah Ahern, clinical director of the heart failure program, and Lorinda Bauer, administrative director of cardiac services, will advise and guide the study team to ensure that the research questions and the conduct of the research remain patient-oriented, according to an NUMC press release.