Division of General Internal Medicine The Division of General Internal Medicine is dedicated to excellence in delivery of high quality patient centered care and improving the health of our community locally, nationally and globally. Its research programs are aimed at developing and testing innovative models of team-based patient-centered care to improve health outcomes among all persons including the most vulnerable population groups. Olveen Carrasquillo, MD, MPH Division Chief, Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences
FIRST STATEWIDE COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER CERTIFICATION The division partners with health systems and community based organizations to test approaches that improve population health, including leveraging new technologies and tools to maximize health outcomes in both health promotion and chronic disease management. One example is ongoing research sponsored by several NIH institutes using Community Health Workers (CHWs) in areas such as diabetes, hypertension, HIV and cancer prevention. In addition, over the last five years, our research team led a statewide multi-stakeholder group that developed formal training curricula, competencies and pathways for CHWs to obtain formal certification. This
work ultimately resulted in Florida becoming the 17th state in the United States to have a formalized process for CHW certification. Over the last 18 months, over 476 CHWs have completed their formal certification through this new pathway. With support from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute last year, the Division also developed curriculum and training program for CHWs in patient-centered research. Over the last six months, over 70 CHWs have completed this new training pathway. Based on this experience, we are now developing a toolkit to be used nationally to train CHWs in research.
POPULATION HEALTH PROGRAM TRAINS PRACTITIONERS IN VALUE-BASED CARE One of most exciting and impactful clinical programs this year was the Population Health Program (PHP) under the direction of Dr. Yanisa Del Toro. As health care moves from one that is fee for service volume-based to one that is focused on delivering high quality, high value-based health care, new models of care delivery are needed that can maximize population health outcomes while promoting efficient use of health care resources. In
Right: University of Miami Community Health Worker, Orieta Fontan, provides education to a patient on controlling blood pressure as part of the Hispanic Secondary Stroke Prevention Initiative run by Dr. Olveen Carrasquillo.
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U H ea l t h | U n i v er s i t y o f M i a m i M i l l er Sc hool of Med i c i ne