Pediatrics Chief Receives Research Award

Michael Cabana, MD, MPP, chief of the Division of General Pediatrics at UCSF Children's Hospital, has been awarded the Nemours Child Health Services Research Award from AcademyHealth at its national meeting in Seattle. The award recognizes Cabana's work during the past seven years in health services research into the epidemiology of quality health care. Cabana studies why some patients receive higher-quality health care than others, and what can be done to address the inequities. The Nemours Award recognizes the scientific work of emerging scholars in the field of child health services research, particularly research on quality improvement of pediatric health services. The award is given to an internationally recognized clinical investigator for major contributions to understanding the pathogenesis, pathophysiology and therapy of endocrine disease. "It's very gratifying to receive this award, especially knowing who has received the award in the past," Cabana said. "It's an award that has been received by many of the people who I have admired for their work in the past." Previous award recipients include doctors from Johns Hopkins University ad UCLA, according to the AcademyHealth website. Quality Care
The four components of asthma care are: making the correct diagnosis, prescribing the right medications, controlling environmental factors and offering good patient education, he says. Cabana has conducted two randomized, controlled trials, looking at ways to improve physician communication and physician prescription of medications for asthma. In his most recent study, published in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics, Cabana found that very simple communication techniques used by physicians in the office can help improve patient understanding of the disease, their management of the disease and subsequent outcomes. In addition to his role as chief of general pediatrics, Cabana is a core faculty member at the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. His research interests include understanding variation in physician practice as it relates to quality of care, particularly in asthma. His work has focused on physician use of clinical practice guidelines, primary care referrals to subspecialists and the primary prevention of asthma. Cabana is former co-director of the Physician Asthma Care Education project, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to improve the quality of physician asthma education. He is currently the principal investigator for the Enhancing Pediatric Asthma Management Study and the Trial of Infant Probiotic Supplementation, both funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. A professional society for 4,000 individuals and 125 affiliated organizations throughout the United States and abroad, AcademyHealth is a leading, non-partisan resource for health research and policy. AcademyHealth promotes interaction across the health research and policy arenas by bringing together a broad spectrum of players to share their perspectives, learn from each other, and strengthen their working relationships.