UIC SPH Student Receives Federal Grant

Research To Focus On Heart Patients’ Quality Of Care

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded a University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health student a prestigious, nationally-competitive grant.

Jared Lane Maeda, a student in the school’s Health Policy and Administration Division, is the only doctoral student in the School of Public Health and from UIC who has received an R36 dissertation grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in recent years, according to Julie Kong, associate director of research services at the school.

The Agency awarded Maeda a salary stipend and funds to purchase the data he needs for his research. He has also been granted a fellowship from the UIC Graduate College to match the external award.

Maeda’s research aims to increase the efficiency of the U.S. health care system, to achieve greater access to effective and appropriate health care services, and subsequently improve the lives of millions of Americans with heart failure, he said.

“The findings of this research will allow payers and policy makers to have greater knowledge regarding the extent to which market forces are driving improvements in hospital performance, as well as have a better understanding for the relative value of using performance indicators as a proxy measure of patient outcomes,” Maeda added.

Anthony LoSasso, associate professor of health policy and administration with UIC SPH, said Maeda is a deserving candidate.

“Jared’s research is enormously policy-relevant, and I am delighted that AHRQ has recognized him with a dissertation grant award,” LoSasso said. “Jared’s research is attempting to do something that comparatively little research has done in the past; he is trying to assess what quality initiatives, such as those sponsored by the Joint Commission on the accreditation of health care organization, really buy us at a macro level in terms of reductions in morbidity and mortality. This could not align better with the mission of AHRQ.”

Students should take advantage of the various research opportunities and services during their public health studies at the school, Kong said.

“My office is very happy that we are able to provide the necessary research development services to assist doctoral students, like Jared, achieve their first grant as part of their education here in the School of Public Health and into a future career in research,” she said.

Maeda, who is expected to receive his PhD this year, points out that his research is relevant to the times.

“This research is timely since the Obama Administration is currently examining ways to improve health care quality while at the same time lowering costs,” he said.

He added that he chose to study this topic because the measurement of health care provider performance by various payers and accrediting bodies has been gaining popularity in recent years.

“However, little is known if an increase in provider performance actually leads to improved outcomes, decreased mortality rates, or the end results of care that patients actually care about,” he said. “The condition of heart failure was selected because it is one of the most common reasons for hospitalization and mortality (about 5 million individuals with heart failure and 550,000 new cases reported each year), costing the health care system $34.8 billion annually.”

“My dissertation research will examine the relationship between hospital market competition, performance on standardized measures, and mortality for heart failure using data from the Joint Commission and Medicare from 2003-2006,” he continued. “This study is novel, since it will be the first to longitudinally link evidence-based heart failure process indicators and mortality in different health care markets across the entire nation.”

Maeda said he has many people to thank for assisting in his research and education.

“I would like to acknowledge that the Joint Commission generously provided me with the ORYX hospital performance data, which made this research possible. Dr. Anthony LoSasso is my primary research mentor on this dissertation research and other key personnel include Dr. Ross Mullner (dissertation committee chair), Dr. Benn Greenspan, Dr. Donald Hedeker, Dr. Scott Williams (associate director, division of quality measurement and research at the Joint Commission), and Dr. Jack Zwanziger, (director of the HPA Division) who serves in an advisory role.”

-- Nichola Moretti