Pilot Funding Program

Chronic Pancreatitis (CP) is a debilitating condition that affects ~300,000 Americans and often leads to disability, opioid use, and poor quality of life. In this study, Dr. Machicado and his team will develop and test a digital, self-guided, disease-specific self-management program for CP by adapting a web-based self-management program, PainGuide, developed by the UM Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center. 

Co-Investigators: David Williams, PhD | Afton Hassett, PsyD | Jonathan Troost, PhD | Daniel Clauw, MD | Anna Lok, MD

Dr. Markovitz and his team will study the influence of "vertical integration" between insurance companies and primary care practices on the everyday care of older adults. This study will help inform changes to policies on primary care access, quality of care and health equity for older adults.

Co-Investigators: John Ayanian, MD | Renu Tipirneni, MD | Thomas Buchmueller, PhD 

Dr. Cousino and her team will develop a prototype application of the WE BEAT App, which builds upon the growing success of the WE BEAT Wellness Education virtual group program led by Dr. Cousino, a pediatric psychologist. The WE BEAT program provides evidence-based resilience skills training and opportunities for peer connection through a virtual community to children and teens with heart disease and other chronic medical conditions.

Co-Investigators: Nathaniel Borenstein, PhD  |  Kurt Schumacher, MD  |  Sara Pasquali, MD

Childhood cancer survivors are at risk of cognitive challenges such as attention and executive function difficulties following medical treatment; however, families often face barriers to accessing behavioral interventions to address these late effects. The goal of this project is to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a brief, virtual, therapist-delivered cognitive compensatory training for children with a history of pediatric cancer and their caregivers. 

Co-Investigators: Elise Hodges, PhD  |  Carol Persad, PhD

The Michigan Plan for Appropriate Tailored Healthcare in Pregnancy (MiPATH) is the national example for redesigned prenatal care and pregnant patients' needs and preferences into one comprehensive, tailored care plan. This project will use surveys to assess pregnant patients' experiences with MiPATH and further refine the care model and ensure prenatal care is best designed to meet patients' medical, education, and social needs.

Co-Investigators: Rosalyn Maben-Feaster, MD  |  Michelle Moniz,  MD  |  Justine Wu, MD

This study will aim to develop a self-administered intervention for patients with depression where they will learn more about the purpose of emotions and of depression. The intervention will also introduce skills that are helpful for responding to depression.

Co-Investigators: Brian Zikmund-Fisher, PhD

Bone fractures are extremely common, but cellular mechanisms underlying successful healing are not known, nor are they considered during an individual patient’s fracture care. Dr. Alford and her team will connect attributes of stem and progenitor cells present in a fractured bone to healing outcomes of individual patients by establishing a prospective skeletal progenitor cell phenotyping program conducted in parallel with longitudinal clinical, patient-centric assessments of fracture healing.

Co-Investigators: Kurt Hankenson, DVM, MS, PhD  |  Jaimo Ahn, MD, PhD

Patients with multiple sclerosis suffer from significant fatigue, pain, and cognitive dysfunction despite reduced neurological disability with disease-modifying agents; however, the absence of assessment methods that combine real-time, ambulatory measures of sleep, circadian rhythms, and chronic daily symptom patterns prevents characterization and mitigation of these burdensome symptoms. Dr. Goldstein and her team will use mobile application-deployed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology to measure fatigue, pain, and cognition in real time, while simultaneously estimating sleep and circadian parameters from a consumer smart watch. 

Co-Investigators: Tiffany Braley, MD  |  Olivia Walch, PhD

The goals of Dr. Sung and his team's research are to develop and implement an educational tool to support patient-centered decision-making for kidney transplant candidates about acceptable donor organ quality based on individualized outcome estimates. Their educational innovation will significantly enhance patient education and help patients directly engage in decision making that can help them develop and achieve their treatment goals.

Co-Investigators: Claudia Dahlerus, PhD  |  Nicholas Hartman, PhD  |  Kevin He, PhD

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the capacity to improve patient care and reduce physician burnout and yet we have seen trust in this new technology explode as ethical questions about quality, reliability, and privacy go unanswered. Dr. Platt's project will generate a foundation for evidence-based guidance for ethical AI in healthcare and will provide the AI ecosystem the new tools they need to achieve the promise of AI. 

Dr. Muzik's project is a bold and innovative project developed by a university (Michigan Medicine/Zero To Thrive)-faith organization (New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church [NBMBC] Pontiac MI/Institute of Trauma and Economic Justice, ITEJ) partnership to engage Black fathers from the community into the Fraternity of Fathers (FOF) mental health and parenting intervention. FOF is an Evidence-Based group therapy that delivers content through an experiential adventure-based approach. This differs from a traditional talk therapy model by actively engaging fathers in play and movement to elicit reflection. This partnership will allow that Black men get access to the programming, and data collected will help optimize implementation and scale up.

Co-Investigators: Reverend Keyon Payton (New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church)