SYMPOSIUM: SO A MODELER, AN ECONOMIST, A SHARED DECISION MAKING EXPERT AND A PAIR OF PATIENT EXPERTS WALK INTO A CONFERENCE ROOM...
SMDM encompasses a wonderful diversity of research approaches and methods. As a society, we have the potential to cross-pollinate our strengths in areas such as comparative effectiveness research and shared decision making, health policy and patient partnership, and health economics and decision psychology. This symposium aims to facilitate such cross-pollination by bringing together speakers who represent diverse perspectives and methods. The speakers will all address a common theme: Diversity and Diabetes, but the lessons learned will be applicable across clinical contexts.
Speakers in this symposium are:
Mila and Jimmy Ferrer are patient advocates in the Miami area. Mila Ferrer runs a popular blog for Spanish speakers living with diabetes: http://jaime-dulceguerrero.com/. She has been recognized as a Diabetes Leader by the International Diabetes Federation, and as a Top Latina Influential Blogger by LATISM. With her husband, Jimmy Ferrer, she organizes patient-led education and support groups for the Latino community in the Miami area.
Monica E. Peek, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Section of General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago where she provides clinical care, teaches and does health services research in the area of diabetes disparities. Dr. Peek is the Associate Director of the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research, and is an inaugural faculty fellow of the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence at the University of Chicago. Dr. Peek has authored over 50 peer-reviewed research papers and publications, and has served as the principal investigator of grants from NIH/NIDDK, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Merck Foundation to improve patient/provider communication and shared decision-making, diabetes care and health outcomes among racial/ethnic minorities and other vulnerable populations. Dr. Peek was awarded the 2013 Junior Investigator of the Year Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine.
David Meltzer, MD, PhD, is Chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine, Director of the Center for Health and the Social Sciences, and Chair of the Committee on Clinical and Translational Science at The University of Chicago, where he is Professor in the Department of Medicine, and affiliated faculty of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and the Department of Economics. He has conducted research about incorporating diverse patient preferences in diabetes into models of future costs and outcomes.
Daria O’Reilly, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and is affiliated with Programs for Assessment of Technology in Health (PATH) Research Institute at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. She conducts research in health technology assessment and cost-effectiveness research. She is an Early Researcher Award Recipient from the Ministry of Research and Innovation in Ontario, and she leads a number of projects, notably a diabetes economic model that simulates the long-term costs and health outcomes of different diabetes management strategies to help inform decision-making in policy, planning and delivery of diabetes care in Ontario. She will speak about this work and about the challenges of incorporating diversity in models.
James Stahl, MD, CM, MPH, will be the discussant for the symposium. Dr. Stahl is Senior Scientist at the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. James Stahl is a champion of innovative, interdisciplinary research and has already had time to reflect on the presentations of each of the speakers. He will offer a thoughtful discussion of how these different perspectives can inform each other, methodologically and otherwise.
The symposium will also be live-tweeted by the moderator and organizer, Holly Witteman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada. Dr. Witteman has connected with relevant patient communities, opinion leaders in those communities, and other stakeholders to promote this symposium. She will bring selected questions posed on Twitter to the speakers and send their answers back to the questioners.