AHA Awards $670,000 to Houston VA for Outcomes Research

The American Heart Association has awarded $670,000 to researchers at the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center (HVAMC) Center for Quality of Care and Utilization Studies to study patient care and outcomes.

The two research projects, scheduled to begin last month, are supported by AHA's Pharmaceutical Roundtable members: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Astra Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Parke-Davis Company, Pfizer, Inc., and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Inc.

Nancy J. Petersen, Ph.D., a biostatistician at the Houston Center, has been awarded a $220,000 grant to conduct research on resource utilization and outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure. "The long-range goal of this research is to determine patterns of utilization that ultimately result in the best outcomes for patients with chronic heart failure," says Dr. Petersen.

Heart failure occurs when the heart cannot pump blood at a sufficient rate to meet the metabolic needs of the body tissues. Subsequently, patients suffer shortness of breath, fatigue, and have a low tolerance for exercise. Chronic heart failure is one of the most frequent causes of hospitalization of people aged 65 and older.

In Dr. Petersen's research over 80,000 patients with a first-listed or associated diagnosis of heart failure who utilized VA outpatient care will be included in the study. The research will use national VA databases to answer questions regarding how much hospital, nursing home, and ambulatory care heart failure patients are receiving; what factors contribute to improved survival; and how utilization and survival differ throughout the United States.

The second AHA grant for $450,000 was awarded to Nancy Kressin, Ph.D., a psychologist (principal investigator) at the Bedford VA and Laura Petersen, M.D., M.P.H., a physician (co-principal investigator) at the Houston VA Medical Center. Dr. Laura Petersen is also a VA career development award recipient. The research team will study racial differences in health-related quality of life among potential candidates for revascularization.

"Cardiac revascularization procedures such as coronary artery bypass graft surgery and angioplasty are well-established treatments for cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Laura Petersen, "but studies in a variety of settings have shown that disproportionately fewer African Americans than white patients receive such procedures."

According to Dr. Petersen, differences in treatment for the same disease may result in differences in patients' health-related quality of life, a measurement of patients' objective and subjective health status.

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