OCHIN has received its first Research Project Grant (R01) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as the prime recipient. The $3.5 million, five-year DEDICATE project (advancing care management adoption in community health centers) will address non-clinical drivers of health outcomes screening and intervention by testing the support that health centers need to effectively use new technologies to connect patients with medical and non-medical health-related needs to supportive community resources. While OCHIN has partnered on many NIH R01 grants before, this is the first that OCHIN is leading.

A growing body of research indicates a connection between our physical health and contextual factors, such as food insecurity, housing instability, or lack of transportation. Community-based health care providers strive to help their patients manage or mitigate these factors, but they face wide-ranging obstacles to offering seamless whole-patient care.

Nicole Cook, PhD, MPA, an investigator at OCHIN and co-principal investigator of DEDICATE, explains that electronic health record systems (EHRs) are often not tailored or optimized to help providers coordinate care and manage patients’ contextual factors influencing health outcomes.