Crego Submits Duke REACH Application

Kudos to Nancy Crego and her entire team for the submission of her Duke REACH – Equity Investigator Development Award Program application entitled “A Culturally Tailored Communication Intervention for Parents of children with Sickle Cell Disease.” This proposal requests funding for a two-year period with a start date of July 1, 2018.

The objective of this proposal is to develop and test a culturally tailored communication intervention aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the care of children with sickle cell disease by improving the quality of parent- health care provider communication during the clinical encounter.

The proposal specific aims are:

AIM 1: Identify verbal and non-verbal communication practices, barriers, and facilitators, used by parents and HCP’s during clinical encounters for children with SCD. I will conduct interviews with HCPs and parents of African-American children with SCD to identify verbal and non-verbal communication practices, and perceived barriers and facilitators used during clinical encounters.

AIM 2: Develop a theoretically grounded, community informed and culturally tailored communication intervention for parents of children with SCD. I will use data on SCD parent- HCP verbal and non-verbal communication practices, barriers and facilitators from interviews, the conceptual framework for patient professional communication, and a SCD parent advisory board to develop the intervention for parents.

AIM 3: Pilot test a culturally tailored communication intervention for feasibility and acceptability by SCD parents and examine preliminary effects on satisfaction of the parent-provider relationship including perceived trust during a simulated communication with a standardized HCP. Ten parents of children with SCD will be instructed on the intervention and then participate in a simulated medical encounter with a standardized HCP. I will obtain quantitative and qualitative data on feasibility, acceptability, satisfaction and perceived trust via post-encounter surveys and interviews. This proposal will complement a U01 minority supplement or K23 application in which I will further test and modify the intervention. The current proposal and U01 or K23 will provide preliminary data required for an NIH R01 application trial testing the hypothesis in a clinical setting.