Enhancing Prevention for Children in Diverse Populations

描述（由申请人提供）：背景和候选人。了解和消除卫生方面的差距是国家的优先事项。黑人和拉丁裔儿童承受着不成比例的哮喘负担，这是儿童发病的主要原因。然而，少数族裔儿童比白人儿童更不可能使用适当的预防药物。该申请要求Tracy Lieu博士，医学博士，公共卫生硕士，全国公认的儿科卫生服务研究员，在面向患者的研究（K24）中获得职业中期研究者奖。刘博士最近成为哈佛大学她所在院系新成立的儿童保健研究中心的主任。她的目标是加强对儿童，特别是少数民族儿童采取有效的预防性保健干预措施。她的记录表明，在资助的哮喘和疫苗研究方面，她的工作效率很高。辅导计划。刘博士的指导记录越来越多，并且有很好的机会与初级调查人员一起工作。在她的新中心，她负责管理三名初级教师，他们都是刚入职三年的学生。她也是哈佛儿童健康服务研究奖学金项目的儿童医院网站主任。这个K24奖是为了保护刘博士的时间，以指导这些初级研究者建立他们的研究组合。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Background and Candidate. Understanding and eliminating disparities in health is a national priority. Black and Latino children bear a disproportionate burden of asthma, a leading cause of childhood morbidity. Yet, minority children are less likely to be using appropriate preventive medications than white children. This application requests a mid-career investigator award in patient-oriented research (K24) for Dr. Tracy Lieu, MD, MPH, a nationally recognized pediatric health services researcher. Dr. Lieu has recently become Director of the new Center for Child Health Care Studies in her department at Harvard. Her goal is to enhance the adoption of effective preventive health interventions for children, especially minority children. Her record demonstrates high productivity in funded research in asthma and vaccines. Mentoring Plan. Dr. Lieu has a growing track record of mentoring and excellent opportunities to work with beginning investigators. She is responsible for three of the junior faculty in her new Center, all of whom are within their first three years. She is also the Children's Hospital Site Director of the Harvard Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship Program. This K24 award is needed to protect Dr. Lieu's time for guiding these beginning investigators as they establish their research portfolios. Research Plan. The proposed research in this K24 award builds on Dr. Lieu's ongoing NICHD-supported R01 on racial/ethnic disparities in medication use by children with persistent asthma. The aims are to: 1. Conduct a prospective cohort study to evaluate parent-provider communication patterns and health beliefs as predictors of preventive medication adoption and influenza vaccination among black, Latino, and white children with persistent asthma; and 2. Analyze existing data to identify practice site policies as well as clinician and patient-level predictors of preventive medication adoption among a diverse group of children with persistent asthma. Summary. This application offers a combination of a highly successful researcher in an intellectually rich environment. The proposed award will enable Dr. Lieu to protect time for mentoring beginning investigators and expand her research in improving preventive health care for diverse populations of children. Support from this K24 award will come at a critical time for Dr. Lieu and for the junior faculty in her new Center.