Julia Arnsten, MD, MPHOctober 18, 2015 - BRONX, NY - A research team led by Dr. Julia Arnsten at Montefiore Health Systems and Albert Einstein College of Medicine has been approved for a two-year, $1.3 million research funding award by the New York State Department of Health Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program (ECRIP) for the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CCER).
The CCER was established in 2013 to allow Montefiore and Einstein to further generate synergy among clinical researchers engaged in diverse areas of research to compare the effectiveness of different prevention, screening, and treatment options for economically underserved populations. To date, the CCER has trained six fellows. The ECRIP grant, the CCER’s second, will enable the Center to continue and expand its research activities, with a focus on patient safety, women’s health, and improving patient-centered outcomes in cancer, chronic pain, and heart disease.
"Efficacy studies are typically conducted in controlled settings with highly selected subjects, and the inferences drawn may not apply to real world settings, particularly those serving urban minority populations with limited healthcare," Dr. Arnsten said. "We need well-designed comparative effectiveness studies conducted in real-world settings."
The grant awarded to Montefiore and Einstein is part of more than $17.2 million in funding that was given to 26 academic medical institutions across the state to help train physician researchers working on clinical research projects ranging from the prevention of obesity to treatments for glaucoma. Funds help to cover the costs of physicians in training fellowships and the associated costs to conduct clinical research. Once ECRIP fellows conclude their training through this program, they are well prepared to apply for National Institutes of Health and other federal research funding. These awards will help train more than 86 physician researchers over the next two years.
Special thanks goes to Dr. Brian Currie, assistant dean for clinical research at Montefiore and professor of clinical medicine and clinical epidemiology & population health at Einstein, for substantive input into and support of Dr. Arnsten's project.
Dr. Arnsten is Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Epidemiology & Population Health. A general internist with a long-standing interest in behavioral medicine, including adherence with medication-taking, nicotine dependence, and substance abuse, Dr. Arnsten currently leads a NIH-funded research program focused on addiction and chronic medical illness. Dr. Arnsten graduated from NYU School of Medicine and completed residency training in Primary Care Internal Medicine at Bellevue Hospital and New York University Medical Center. She then completed a research fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar, and was awarded an R25 grant from NIDA to start a clinical addiction research and education fellowship for physicians. Dr. Arnsten has been recognized with several local and national awards for outstanding teaching and mentoring.
"We are honored to receive this grant to support the continuation of our efforts to produce well-trained, highly skilled investigators who will improve the relevance of comparative effectiveness research," said Dr. Arnsten.
