LPFCH Young Investigator Award Year II – CSHCN
Organization: Stanford University
Primary Contact: David Bergman, MD
Grant Amount: $93,692 for 12 months
Date Awarded:
Purpose
To increase the number of academic pediatric faculty in California whose research focuses on the care of children with special health care needs, and increase attention to the care of children with special health care needs in pediatric training programs in California.
Outcome
There is general agreement that improving the care of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) depends on the existence of high quality systems of care tailored to meet their special needs. In the US, development of such systems is a nascent process; consequently few academic pediatricians are engaged in the clinical care of these children or in research that could inform system development and improvement.
This project, now entering its third year, is designed to engage pediatric fellows and junior faculty members in research to improve systems of care for CSHCN, and, hopefully, shape their research careers so they continue to focus on this population and the care systems on which they depend. About three Young Investigators (YI) are selected each year to receive small grants to support their research. Each YI has a faculty mentor at their institution, and all are offered opportunities to network among themselves. The YIs seem enthusiastic about their research projects and all seem to be progressing well. The overall project has only been in operation for a short time, so results of research projects of the first cohort of YIs are just reaching the point of submission for review. It will be several more years until the success of this undertaking can be determined.