Professor Katherine Beissner's research team has been awarded a 3-year RO1 grant for $1.5 million dollars from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHQR), for their project entitled "Treating Pain to Reduce Disability Among Older Home Health Patients".
The project is based upon a pain self management program that Professor Beissner developed with a Cornell colleague. After the program was successfully implemented at senior centers in New York City it was modified for use in home care through a pilot project last year.
The overall goal of the proposed study is to reduce disability among older home health patients by treating their pain more effectively. The study will compare the effectiveness of usual care provided to older home health patients with debilitating pain, to usual care plus instruction by physical therapists in a non-drug pain treatment program developed and widely employed in other health care settings. Project findings have the potential to directly benefit clinical decision makers and a significant share of the several million racially and ethnically diverse older Americans admitted to home health care annually.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20120220152014282