NIH awards $2.5 million grant for telephone-based diabetes research

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, both affiliated with Yeshiva University, and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, are the recipients of a 5-year, $2.5 million grant from the NIH to study the impact of telephone-based diabetes interventions, according to a press release

“This new funding grant will also help us to determine whether our comprehensive program of telephonic support for diabetes management, as compared to educational printed materials provided to patients, is more helpful to patients and providers. We will also explore whether it is cost-effective, sustainable, and widely applicable in primary care,” Jeffrey Gonzalez, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Ferkauf and assistant professor of medicine and of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said in a press release.

Patients randomly assigned to the telephone intervention will receive between four and eight phone calls over a 1-year period by trained staff.

Based on prior work by Gonzalez and colleagues, the researchers will also incorporate distress-management intervention components aimed at improving depression, medication adherence, self-care and blood pressure.

For more information:

NIH project 1R18DK098742-01A1: Translating telephonic diabetes self-management support to primary care practice. Accessed Nov. 27, 2013.