MaineHealth has been awarded a five-year, $13.2 million federal research grant to improve acute care in rural areas.
Funding comes from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which is part of the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.
The grant will allow the MaineHealth Institute for Research to build on its work over the past five years to establish a statewide research and care network addressing barriers associated with limited resources, expertise and access in rural areas.
The institute said the additional funding will build on that foundation by supporting promising clinician-scientists, advancing research underway and strengthening MaineHealth’s research facilities, support services, data management and national collaborations.
“We are excited about the progress we made in our first five years in helping our junior faculty develop while building academic relationships with collaborators across the country through this acute care COBRE,” or Center of Biomedical Research Excellence, said Dr. David Seder of MaineHealth Maine Medical Center in Portland, who will serve as the grant’s principal investigator.
“This new funding will provide direct health and economic benefits to the state of Maine as we leverage the relationships we developed to further our investigators’ current research and mentor the next generation of scientists,” he added.
Research plans
Among the new projects funded through the grant is a study aimed at improving treatment for patients with opioid use disorder while they are in the intensive care unit.
Another project builds on earlier research examining whether an innovative telesimulation program can improve neonatal resuscitation training in rural hospitals.
Rural hospitals with low birth volumes have significantly higher rates of brain injury and infant mortality when newborns require resuscitation, as clinicians have fewer opportunities to practice these emergency procedures.
A team led by Dr. Allison Zanno will work with colleagues at MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital, Pen Bay Hospital, Lincoln Hospital, Franklin Hospital, Stephens Hospital and Maine Medical Center Biddeford to refine the training and evaluate its effectiveness in improving neonatal resuscitation, with a goal of expanding the program to more rural hospitals.
With more than 2,000 medical providers on staff and approximately 23,000 care team members, MaineHealth provides preventive care, diagnosis and treatment to 1.1 million residents across Maine and New Hampshire.
