Scholarly Pairings for Academic and Research Collaboration - the SPARC program

The SPARC program invites regional students at all levels from education, the social sciences, and other disciplines to explore opportunities to collaborate with faculty in the Department of Family Medicine (DFM) at SUNY Upstate Medical University. The primary goal for this program is to allow students and DFM faculty to produce scholarly papers, presentations, and other academic output, together as collaborators. This allows the student to access populations, data, pre-doctoral publication opportunities, and potentially unique research opportunities that would not otherwise be available to them. At the same time, it allows DFM faculty and collaborators to tap into the skills, knoweldge, and expertise that many students already have.

Projects completed or in progress that have involved SPARC associates include a mixed methods evaluation of the Department's standardized patient program, evaluation activities associated with the Transitions Institute (a collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics at SUNY Upstate), an exploration of the role of legal nationality on access to the right to health, and a newly-instituted program, the "Research Experience in Ethics and Health" (http://www.upstate.edu/fmed/reeh.php).



This project has been made possible by intra-departmental funding and commitment of effort, as well as by a federal grant award from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA grant D54HP05462, Andrea T. Manyon, PI).

North American Primary Care Research Group

Members of the Department of Family Medicine are giving three podium presentations at this year's NAPCRG annual meeting, including two presentations on work derived from the development of a standardized patient examination that evaluates FM clerkship students on their ability to address the psychological and social needs of a patient with an impending diagnosis of Diabetes. Additionally, an analysis of data from a vignette study of the influences of race and insurance status on ADHD diagnosis and treatment preferences is also being presented.

See the NAPCRG website for more information.

SALT-Net, a Practice-Based Research Network

Faculty in the Department of Family Medicine are developing a practice-based research network (PBRN) from the ranks of its community faculty preceptors and other associates. The primary aim of the PBRN - entitled the "Studying, Acting, Learning, Teaching Network" - or SALT-Net - is to serve as an incubator for new ideas to improve primary care practice in the Central New York region.

The first two studies conducted through SALT-Net were survey-based. The initial study was a survey of physician attitudes about obesity and obese patients. The data from this study are presently under analysis. The second study was a rapid look at the effect of news coverage of MRSA outbreaks on phsyician practices in our region, and was published in the Journal of Public Health Practice and Management in March, 2009.

PBRN studies currently in the planning stages include:

• Moving regional primary care practices toward the Patient-Centered Medical Home model of care;
• A study examining regular approaches to identifying and treating Vitamin D Deficiency;
• A study examining the time spent on Prior Authorization procedures in primary care practices;
• A study examining the effects of waiting time on patient satisfaction;

Additional study ideas are always welcome!

Medical Education

The Department of Family Medicine regularly evaluates it's own educational endeavors, and has:

• Developed a BioPsychoSocial Integrated Standardized Patient Examination (ISPE) for the Family Medicine clerkship;



• Conducts periodic evaluations of its Rural Medical Education Program (RMED).
  See, for example: Smucny J, Beatty P, Grant W, Dennison T, Wolff LT. An evaluation of the Rural Medical Education Program of the State University Of New York Upstate Medical University, 1990-2003. Academic Medicine. 2005 Aug;80(8):733-8.



• Conducted a literature review to inform the development of practice management competency guidelines for Family Medicine residencies: Kolva DE, Barzee KA, Morley CP. Practice management residency curricula: a systematic literature review. Family Medicine. 2009 Jun;41(6):411-9.

Health, Human Rights, Medical Citizenship & Ethics

Faculty in the Department of Family Medicine are currently working on several projects that examine ethical issues related to healthcare,social justice & health, and the bidirectional relationship between citizenship and health. Some examples include:

• Cohen EF & Morley CP. Children, ADHD, and Citizenship. Journal of Medicine & Philosophy. 2009 Apr;34(2):155-80. Epub 2009 Feb 27.
• Morley CP. Primary care, patient autonomy, and healthcare justice. The American Journal of Bioethics. 2008 Oct;8(10):22-3.
• Morley CP, Beatty PG. Ethical Problems in Rural Healthcare: Local Symptoms, Systemic Disease. The American Journal of Bioethics, 2008 Oct; 8(4): 59 - 60.

Genetics of Schizophrenia

The Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry at SUNY Upstate are collaborating to collect genetic material and data from 1000 patients with schizophrenia, and 1000 healthy control subjects, as part of a larger international, multi-site, NIMH-funded effort.

More information about this project is available here:
http://www.upstate.edu/fmed/research/gpc.php