Request Help

Center for Research in Chronic Disorders

2 P30 NR003924-11

The Center for Research in Chronic Disorders (CRCD) was founded in October 1994 and is in its third cycle of NIH/NINR funding. The CRCD is, thus, an independent entity in the School of Nursing. Researchers within the Center are nursing faculty in the departments of Health and Community Systems, Acute and Tertiary Care, and Health Promotion and Development; they teach in the graduate and undergraduate programs. CRCD faculty also actively mentor and advise doctoral and post-doctoral students from nursing and other health related disciplines; a number of paid positions on funded grants within the Center are filled by graduate and post-graduate students.

The Center provides infrastructure support for multidisciplinary, outcomes based research in chronic disorders across the lifespan. The Center is designed to provide support for the development of science in the area of chronic disorders. During its first 10 years, the CRCD focused on the moderating effects of co-morbid conditions, health disparities, and socio/demographic characteristics on quality of life, functional status, cognitive function, and adherence to treatment regimens. The work of the past decade has identified the central role that adherence to management guidelines plays on clinical outcomes. Thusly, the focus of the continuing center is on both patient and provider management of treatment regimens and the in-depth pursuit of an understanding of the factors which influence adherence and on strategies to improve adherence and clinical outcomes. The Center brings together an interdisciplinary group of investigators with active research in chronic disorders, supports monthly visiting scholar presentations, and guides monthly journal clubs and investigator meetings. The CRCD manages a pilot program for new investigators and for more senior investigators who are proposing a substantial shift in research emphasis. Direct support to pilot investigators is provided, on a competitive basis, in terms of monies, consultation and training, and logistical support. Oversight is provided by an executive committee and an external advisory committee.

Current and recently completed research projects within the CRCD have focused on interventions to improve adherence to medication and life style changes such as weight loss and exercise regimens. Researchers in the CRCD who study adolescents focus on healthy and chronically ill youth to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life. Chronic disease populations which our researchers have studied include patients with autoimmune diseases, diabetes, dementia and mild cognitive impairment, mood and other psychiatric disorders, organ transplants, HIV/Aids, cardiovascular disease and osteo-arthritis. Dissemination of information and research findings are in the form of peer- reviewed journal articles and columns, conference seminars and posters, workshops, and quarterly in-house publications.

The CRCD consists of five central cores which function interdependently to provide infrastructure and consultation to researchers throughout the university and medical center.

• Administrative Core: to provide administrative oversight and coordination to core support services and to promote collaboration and integration of research within the broader scientific community.
• Data Management and Analysis core: to provide centralized services to support common methods of data management and statistical analyses, emphasizing adherence and shared variable across studies and to conduct methodological studies on measurement of adherence and clinical outcomes.
• Cognitive Core: to encourage and support measurement of psychological and cognitive function, with specifically tailored test batteries, in all CRCD research projects and to design and pilot more ecologically sound measures of psychological and cognitive function, specifically as they may impact on treatment adherence.
• Research Development Core: to foster acquisition of state-of-the-art knowledge of the management of treatment regimens in persons with chronic disorders across the lifespan, to stimulate multidisciplinary collaboration among scholars, and to develop and evaluate a distance education model for mentoring young investigators.
• Dissemination and Translation Core: to disseminate findings relevant to the goals of the CRCD and to test strategies for adoption of research as a basis for practice at the staff nurse level.

Updated: November 30, 2007
Technical info: cmh1@pitt.edu