GW Researchers Awarded Significant Grants


May 17, 2012

George Washington statue in University Yard

Three different sets of GW researchers have received grants of more than $1 million in the past several weeks. The award-winning research projects are in the areas of medicine, teacher education and public health.

A research team led by Susie Lew, a professor of medicine and director of clinical services at GW’s Medical Faculty Associates and medical director for the Acute Hemodialysis Unit at the GW Hospital, received a $1.9 million grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Innovation Center to improve the health outcomes of dialysis patients.

GW's Center for Equity and Excellence in Education (CEEE) received a nearly $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition for a project to improve instruction for rural English language learners in grades K-12. The research will be led by primary investigator Kristina Anstrom, a GW senior research scientist and assistant director of the CEEE.

Olga Acosta Price, associate professor of prevention and community health and director of GW's Center for Health and Healthcare in Schools, received a nearly $1.4 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to investigate programs and practices that advance social and emotional learning.

Leo Chalupa, GW vice president for research, said he was proud of the researchers’ success.

“These three awards are indicative of the fact that our faculty can successfully compete for large grants in a very competitive climate. I applaud and congratulate these PIs and their colleagues,” he said.

Dr. Lew’s project, titled “Using Telemedicine in Peritoneal Dialysis to Improve Patient Adherence and Outcomes while Reducing Overall Costs,” will investigate how a program of telemedicine—which uses video and real-time, continuous remote monitoring—might improve patient access to care, treatment adherence and health outcomes for patients using peritoneal dialysis, a home treatment option for renal failure.

Dr. Lew’s team will develop the telemedicine model in collaboration with GW’s MFA Department of Emergency Medicine’s Worldwide Emergency Communication Center. The team predicts the new model will reduce the cost of care for peritoneal dialysis patients with complex health care needs by reducing overall hospitalization days. The estimated savings with implementation of this model is approximately $1.7 million.

“Finding innovative ways to improve access to care and improving patient adherence is critically important to making people healthier. We are grateful to CMS for the opportunity to develop this model that will lead to improved health and a better quality of life for many patients,” Dr. Lew said.

Dr. Anstrom’s team’s research, which was awarded a five-year grant, will involve developing and sustaining a teacher education program for in-service rural teachers to improve the education of English language learners. CEEE will work with GW Graduate School of Education and Human Development’s English as a second language (ESL) faculty to build on the existing ESL licensure program offered at GW, adapting pre-service ESL courses so they address K-12 teachers serving English-language learners in general education classrooms in Virginia.

The resulting ESL certificate program will provide teachers with 18 credits of graduate teacher education coursework that meet the Virginia Department of Education requirements for an add-on ESL endorsement and also support the development of teacher professional learning communities. The researchers will partner with education leaders in Accomack County Public Schools, in rural Virginia, on the project.

Charlene Rivera, CEEE's executive director and a GW research professor, said the project aims to help Virginia address the state's need to prepare 500 to 700 teachers for an ESL endorsement.

“Using a blended-learning approach—a combination of face-to-face and online instruction—for the certificate program and the professional development will provide the flexibility and convenience that Accomack County teachers and other in-service teachers require,” she said.

Dr. Price received her grant for a project titled, “Developing Approaches for Effective Adoption and Long-Term Sustainability of Programs and Practices that Advance Social and Emotional Learning.” Social and emotional learning programs—often administered by schools and nonprofit organizations—teach children how to be self-aware, how to make responsible choices, how to develop good interpersonal relationship skills and how to develop social awareness, including empathy.

The GW research team will work with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) initiative and eight school districts to understand how best to translate small social and emotional learning initiatives into district-wide or state-endorsed strategies. 

“The reason I’m so excited about this grant is that this is an area where we have had limited understanding so far,” Dr. Price said. “Effective programs have been shown to have great impact, but that doesn’t ensure sustainability and longevity. As public health administrators, we haven’t had the opportunity or the luxury yet to look at structures that keep effective programs in place. There are lots of implications here to bring good programs to scale.”

Effective, long-standing social and emotional learning programs also have a strong public health component, she explained. Improving young people’s social and emotional health also tends to lead to better academic performance.

“We’re looking at the ability of these sets of SEL programs to address some of the mental health and behavioral health needs of kids,” Dr. Price said.