The Pfizer Medical Education Group has awarded a grant to a collaborating research team from Wayne State University's Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (EACPHS) and the School of Medicine (SOM); and the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS).

The project "Pneumococcal Disease Prevention Initiative: Integrated Interventions for Improved Adult Immunization Rates" aims to establish a proactive program for adult immunizations that engages key stakeholder groups and improves consumer and health provider knowledge in HFHS outpatient clinic facilities. "We anticipate this project will lead to sustainably high rates of adult immunization coverage among those 65 years of age or older," said co-principal investigator Paul Kilgore, MPH, MD, associate professor, EACPHS Department of Pharmacy Practice.

Detroit is typical of many large urban areas that have a large, ethnically diverse population with varying access to health care. Kilgore said, "The complementary clinical, patient safety and research resources of Henry Ford Health System and Wayne State University enable a highly balanced interprofessional strategy and infrastructure to identify barriers to care and to ramp up adult immunizations." The research team will develop and integrate an electronic health provider education program for prevention of pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease.

Kilgore will provide overall scientific direction of the project and day-to-day technical support for implementation of immunization, feedback, and monitoring procedures. Co-investigator Emily Martin, PhD, assistant professor in the EACPHS Department of Pharmacy Practice, will support implementation of immunization intervention components and epidemiological issues that represent barriers to vaccine uptake. Carolyn Archer, a member of the EACPHS research group, also will provide assistance.

Other members of the research team are co-principal investigators Marcus Zervos, MD, specialist in Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease, and Christine Joseph, PhD, associate scientist in Public Health Services, both from Henry Ford Health System; and Linda Kaljee, PhD, associate professor, Pediatric Prevention Research Center, WSU School of Medicine.

February 7, 2013