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Community Corner

New foundations grants boost local health care

November 21, 2013

Contact:  Fredric Finkelstein, MD, President

Phone Number: 203-687-4429

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Email: ABonvini@nhcmg.org

New Haven’s Newest Nonprofit Foundation AWARDS LOCAL grants

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Small Projects to Effect Big Change

The Connecticut Foundation for Better Health (CFBH), New Haven’s newest nonprofit foundation, has awarded small grant funding to nine recipients to facilitate disease prevention, health promotion and the integration of healthcare delivery at the local level.  

“The foundation will afford the health care community broad opportunities to develop innovative solutions to health care delivery for residents of the Greater New Haven region,” according to Fredric Finkelstein, MD, president of the CFBH Board. Dr. Finkelstein added that “new and engaging programs of health care delivery are crucial as the health care system evolves and changes.”

Start-up support for the foundation came from a generous donation made by the New Haven Community Medical Group in 2012.  Steve Wolfson, MD and treasurer for the foundation, explained that the donation “was seen as an opportunity to give back and directly foster the health of the community, and represents our highest values.”

Future plans for CFBH include an expansion to encompass other areas of the state to provide support for broad, regional health innovations that in the words of David Pearson, another board member, will “address health care’s triangular challenge of containing costs, strengthening quality and facilitating access.”

In its first six months of operation the foundation received 16 requests for funding, and awarded nine grants which addressed improvements in health delivery systems, patient tracking, increased access to primary care services, patient education, awareness and patient-provider relations. “The projects themselves are unique and innovative,” says Ann Marie Bonvini, an ex officio member of the board, “and it’s clear that these ideas are coming from people who see a need because they’re right out there in the community. They touch the individuals who need the help, and they see what can be done to make things better.”

The grant recipients are:

 

Gateway Community Collegeto support development of training workshops targeting cancer and diabetes and a new online teaching tool to train Patient Navigators.

Partnership between Metabolism Associates and the Metropolitan Business Academy: to develop an innovative science curriculum and partnership to raise awareness of kidney disease among at-risk high school students and families, and to support career decisions in science and medicine.

Partnership between Pulmonary Associates and Yale Center for Asthma and Airways Disease: for development and deployment of an online tool and electronic monitoring device to improve disease management and outcomes, and to facilitate patient/provider communication.

Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center: to support targeted team outreach to engage under- and unserved families and encourage enrollment in the Dixwell health site for primary pediatric health care.

Partnership between VNA Community Healthcare and Shoreline Health Neighborhood: a neighborhood-based community health education project to provide training, deployment and replication of tools to increase health literacy and medication compliance/adherence among patients and caregivers.

Project Access: application of the Project Access/Patient Navigator model to target Medicaid patients who utilize the Emergency Department.  Patients will be redirected to appropriate primary care services at six community-based partner referral sites.

All Our Kin: establishment of a program expansion to enable a nurse consultant to work with home-based family childcare providers on key health and safety topics, including medication administration/ compliance and child-specific health care challenges.

Transition Clinic: support for a primary health reentry program housed at Yale-New Haven Hospital that will improve health and access to care while lowering costs for individuals leaving prison and returning to New Haven. Funding will support contact with patients pre-release to improve management of chronic health conditions, and development of a small community advisory board.

Neighborhood Health Project:  project support for a student run Mosque-based screening program to identify patients with or at risk of diabetes or hypertension.

The Connecticut Foundation for Better Health’s board is comprised of a diverse group of physicians, nurses, academics, and business people with expertise in public health, medicine, business and journalism.  Members of the board include:

Fredric Finkelstein, MD, President-- Clinical Professor of Medicine at Yale University, co-chair of the Dialysis Committee of the International Society of Nephrology, and chair of the International Liaison Committee for the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis.

Ramon Gonzalez, MD, Vice PresidentDirector, Radiologist Assistant Program at Quinnipiac University, Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences at the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine, Assistant Clinical Professor of Radiology at Yale University School of Medicine

Katrina Clark, MPH, Secretary-Former Executive Director, Fair Haven Community Health Center.

Steve Wolfson, MD, Treasurer-- Founding partner of Cardiology Associates of New Haven, New Haven County Medical Association’s Councilor to the Connecticut State Medical Society, and associate clinical professor of medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Elizabeth Bradley, MBA, PhDDirector, Yale Global Health Initiative, and faculty director for the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute.

Darcey Lynn Cobbs-Lomax, MBA, MPHExecutive Director, Project Access of New Haven, an organization that increases access to medical care and services for underserved patients in the Greater New Haven area.

Agnes Czibulka, MDCommunity Based Physician and Surgeon, Clinical Instructor, Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology.

Barbara Katz, MSNDirector, Clinical Program Development at VNA Community Healthcare.

Charles Kochakian, MS Retired. As the editorial page editor of the New Haven Register, one of his main interests was health care's place as a key factor in the region's economy and the health care community's concerns about cost and access.

David Pearson, PhDRetired, Everett Sackett Professor Emeritus, School of Health and Human Services, University of New Haven, former Associate Dean, Yale School of Public Health.

All support for the foundation is tax-deductible and will be used to create opportunities that foster the health of Connecticut communities.  For more information about the CFBH mission, 2013 grant recipients, board members and resource links, please visit www.ctfbh.org.

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