Delivering Culturally Appropriate Care to Optimize Medication Use in the Elderly

Project Summary

This project will deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate Medication Therapy Management (MTM) services provided by pharmacists and community health workers (CHWs), trained to use telemedicine, to elderly Cambodians.

Technology

Video-conference, electronic health records, spoken-format technology.

Targeted Locations

Long Beach, California; Connecticut; and Western Massachusetts.

Collaborators

• Khmer Health Advocates
• Mount Carmel Cambodian Project
• University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy

12-Month Goals

• Successfully diffuse the medication management program utilizing PMD machines to four different provider types in four new geographic locations in California.
• Improve patients’ drug therapy outcomes >20% from baseline.
• Demonstrate similar improvement of drug therapy outcomes between face-to-face and telemedicine-provided service.
• Reduce potentially inappropriate medication use >20%.
• Demonstrate a reduction in health expenditures compared to the cost of providing the service by a factor of least 8 to 1.

Older Adult Population

1st year: 100 (50 face-to-face, 50 videoconference linked) older Cambodian-American adults residing in CA, CT, and MA.
5th year: Potential to apply intervention to 8% of 45,000 Cambodians in Long Beach, CT, and Western MA; and 8% of 300,000 Cambodian-Americans nationwide. (16% of Cambodian-Americans are over 62; as many as half have chronic illness and take 3 chronic medications.) The intervention can also be utilized to reach remote locations where minority populations have limited English-speaking abilities.

Setting/Provider Type

Pharmacists, community health workers, Cambodian-American health organization.

Measurable Outcomes

Analyses of pharmacist interventions will include patient and provider response to recommendations, clinical goals of therapy, and evidence-based documentation of cost savings.

Replication, Dissemination Plan

Raise awareness and promote benefits of technology intervention via publications, presentations, and policy advocacy for federal and private reimbursement.

Sustainability Plan

Grant funding and other potential funding sources.

Funding Request

$92,000

Matching Funds

$91,000