Prof. Maya Clark-Cutaia receives pilot award to study self-assessment among patients receiving dialysis

Maya Clark-Cutaia, PhD, ANCP-BC, RN, assistant professor at NYU Meyers, has received a one-year, $30,000 pilot award from the Center for Improving Care Delivery for the Aging (CICADA) to study self-assessment among patients with kidney disease who are receiving dialysis.

CICADA, a National Institute of Aging-funded Resource Center for Minority Aging Research at the University of Pennsylvania, emphasizes inter- and trans-disciplinary science that provides an evidence base for addressing issues of care quality, access, affordability, and/or equity. The purpose of the pilot award is to support research by emerging scientists from underrepresented backgrounds in health services research as it applies to the most pressing issues for aging Americans, particularly minority elders.

Clark-Cutaia’s study will explore the feasibility of integrating a validated, comprehensive, symptom focused self-assessment with a short recall into the dialysis clinic workflow. The integration of a symptom self-assessment may improve quality-of-life and symptom recognition/treatment by alerting clinicians to those patients most in need of intervention in this vulnerable and fragile patient population, thereby potentially reducing the need for higher levels of care. In addition, integrating an electronic symptom self-assessment may improve communication, symptom documentation, and frequency of treatment.

Clark-Cutaia was also recently chosen as one of ten Multiple Chronic Conditions Scholars, a program spearheaded by the NIH-funded Health Care Systems Research Network and Older Americans Independence Centers AGING Initiative. The Multiple Chronic Conditions Scholars program is intended to catalyze an expansion of interdisciplinary research relevant to the science of multiple chronic conditions, and has selected a cohort of emerging leaders committed to pursuing training to align their research interests and agendas with issues relevant to the health of older adults with multiple chronic conditions. Clark-Cutaia and her fellow scholars will participate in a year-long curriculum on multiple chronic conditions research, engaging patient and caregiver partners, and career and leadership development.