Health Care

Health care is a Kentucky priority, producing solutions for injuries and diseases that kill or shorten lives and impair quality of life. UK Commonwealth Collaboratives are working to extend and improve life, increase access to health care, improve knowledge and practice, and reduce costs.

One first-round collaborative aims at lung, esophageal, and liver cancer. Another is developing and testing vaccines for lung cancer, which has claimed the lives of 80 percent of its victims for decades and for which Kentucky's incidence is 50 percent above the national average.

UK researchers are also working to improve outcomes for Kentuckians with traumatic brain injuries, seeking biomarkers to determine degree of injury and efficacy of treatment as well as new drugs to advance healing. Other researchers are creating broad coalitions with underserved communities to develop research-based solutions for Alzheimer's disease, educate the population, and provide models of respite care.

Access to health care is a priority, particularly for the 16 percent of Kentuckians and 30 percent of Fayette County children who are poor and wholly or partially underserved by the health care system. UK nurse practitioners respond, providing 10,000 primary care visits annually at central Kentucky locations, offering early intervention and reducing the need for later, more costly medical treatment.

Close patient monitoring, improved medical outcomes, and reduced costs are goals of UK researchers piloting sustainable medication management and patient care systems to better protect over 375,000 adult Kentucky diabetics and over 600,000 adult Kentucky pre-diabetics. This initiative reduces risks of long-term complications to the nerves, kidneys, heart, and eyes. A similar collaborative works with Kentucky Medicaid patients, identifying inappropriate and over-utilized pharmaceuticals to maintain patient care, minimize costs, and preserve health benefits for Medicaid users.

In Kentucky each year 5,000 preterm, low birth-weight babies are born at a cost of $20,000,000. UK medical and dental researchers are piloting sustainable systems for treating persistent oral infection to reduce premature births and lower costs.

UK researchers are developing training to prepare Kentucky health care providers to assess and care for the medical needs of Kentuckians with developmental disabilities. Another collaborative is developing rural community partnerships, providing expertise, and stimulating local leadership against Kentucky's drug epidemic.

Kentucky's children and youth are another high priority. UK researchers are leading, cataloging, and making available research that addresses all child and youth well-being areas that leave Kentucky currently ranked 37th nationally in overall child well-being.

2008 collaboratives add to UK’s ongoing health-related research and implementation initiatives. One works to measure and reduce exposure to second-hand smoke and radon, both related to Kentucky’s highest in the nation smoking and lung cancer rates.

Another teams with Kentucky Homeplace and the Kentucky Pharmacists Association to provide safe, effective, coordinated access to medications for under-insured rural Kentuckians.

A third collaborates with community partners to reduce the cost, frequency, and health impact to Kentuckians of heart disease, circulatory, vision, and kidney problems associated with type 2 diabetes through treatment of oral infections.

The Mt. Sterling Health Initiative supports a Montgomery County community-based coalition to address healthcare issues for Hispanic workers and families while reducing the burden of uncompensated healthcare.

Another 2008 initiative partners with the Kentucky Department of Corrections and the Kentucky Office of Drug Policy to offer substance abuse treatment and services to offenders at their re-entry to the community in order to prevent relapse into substance abuse, criminal activity, and recidivism.