DENVER (Nov. 14, 2006) – John Messenger, MD, associate professor of cardiology at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center’s School of Medicine has been named one of 19 recipients sharing a $5 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The grant, awarded to projects designed to improve patient safety through simulation research, will be used by Messenger and his team at UCDHSC to improve emergency treatment of heart conditions in Colorado’s rural areas.
The program partners with Medical Simulation Corporation located in Denver, a leader in simulation training and testing, to implement simulation as a means of engaging and training rural health care providers to treat heart attacks. Simulation training allows these providers to re-create potential medical scenarios and attempt new procedures to determine best practice outcomes that reduce medical errors and improve patient safety.
Because rural health care providers may be required to assume more than one role in the event of an emergency, simulation training is particularly useful. Messenger plans to train personnel at eight rural hospitals across Northeastern Colorado and reassess the care of patients at these hospitals following the intervention.
“This research project is exciting because it weds novel teaching and training techniques using simulation training with an evidence-based educational curriculum,” Messenger said. “The project focuses on front line responders in rural settings – mainly family medicine physicians, paramedics, and nurses in rural hospitals. In these settings, most health care providers tend to wear many hats and the multidisciplinary team we’ve assembled reflects those different areas of expertise.”
The UCDHSC School of Medicine team consists of Jack Westfall, MD, associate dean of rural health, Cathy Jaynes, RN, PhD, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, along with cardiologists John Rumsfeld, MD, PhD, Fred Masoudi, MD, MSPH, John Carroll, MD, and Andrew Klein, MD.
The School of Medicine faculty work to advance science and improve care as the physicians, educators and scientists at University of Colorado Hospital, The Children’s Hospital, Denver Health, National Jewish Medical and Research Center and the Veterans Administration Medical Center. The School is part of the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, one of three universities in the University of Colorado system. For more information, visit the Web site at www.uchsc.edu or the UCDHSC Newsroom at http://www.uchsc.edu/news.