Morehouse School of Medicine

Community Physician’s Network (CPN)

The Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) Community Practitioner’s Network (CPN) is a consortium of health care practitioners who are in an academic partnership with MSM. The CPN utilizes innovative educational programs to involve minority practices in community based clinical research. These include providing educational tools, training programs and certification for practitioners interested in participating in clinical research. Practitioners have access to the findings and interpretations of the data derived from their practices and can use this to plan interventions that would improve the care of these patients. This strategy contributes to CPN’s mission of eliminating healthcare disparities particularly those affecting minority populations.

Staff: The CPN receives support from the Clinical Research Center and its staff directed by Dr. Elizabeth Ofili under whose leadership this institute (CRC) has been recognized for many achievements made in defining and charting solutions for dealing with health care disparities amongst minority groups. Dr. Ofili, is a board certified cardiologist and Professor of Medicine at MSM. Dr. Priscilla Johnson, Assistant Director of Administration and Clinical Affairs (CRC), oversees the recruitment of patients and administrative affairs handled by Debra Teague, the Program Coordinator.

CPN faculty is headed by Morehouse specialist Dr. Priscilla Igho-Pemu , a board certified internist and graduate of the Master of Science program whose research focused on cardiovascular diseases in African American women. Dr. Pemu’s busy clinical practice exposes her to the healthcare disparities of minority communities in the Metro Atlanta Area.

Direct interaction with physician practices in the Atlanta community has been facilitated in the field through research coordinators Dr. Folake Ojutolayo and Dr. Sarah Obiyosa both of whom are physicians with experience in clinical research. Carla Holloway is the contact person for the CPN.

The disparities in health care affecting minority groups are related to a number of factors. Firstly, the prevalence of disease and risk factors for disease are different. Minority groups have poor access to health care delivery systems and traditionally do not comply and adhere to pharmacological and lifestyle interventions. There is not sufficient involvement in clinical research at the investigator and patient level and the application of evidence based clinical practice guidelines does not reach a sufficient proportion of these minority groups.

Minority physician practices (particularly African American) are under represented in clinical trial participation. As a result, clinical studies may not provide answers to the unique problems of these underserved patient populations. This under representation is likely to worsen as the certification requirements and financial resources needed to conduct clinical research become more demanding. There is a growing need for a consortium of investigators, practitioners and community based practices that can help address this gap in medical research.  

CPN facilitates participation of minority physician practices by:

• Offering membership to physicians whose practices provide care to at least 30% minority patients.
• Bringing together a critical mass of patients and investigators from minority practices.
• Training and certification of CPN practitioners in clinical research for participation in clinical trials.
• Providing educational tools for physicians necessary for participation in clinical trials
• Facilitating partnerships with academic and other institutions.
• Establishing Regional Practice Based Registries in Hypertension and Heart Failure.

CPN’s Goals (which are aligned with MSM’s mission statement) are: 

• To develop and establish innovative educational programs for training CPN practitioners in the fundamental principles of clinical research whilst mentoring them to become clinical investigators.
• To encourage minority participation in clinical research by increasing the number of African American practitioners in clinical research and increasing participation of African American and other minority patients in clinical trials.
• To implement practice based clinical interventions by interfacing academic (evidence based) medicine into real world practice.
• To contribute to the medical literature on minority groups and communities who are traditionally underrepresented in the medical literature.

An Advisory Board prioritizes the research agenda based on relevance and the potential impact in eliminating disparities. A Steering Committee oversees the design of study protocols whilst the data Management and Safety Board ensures protection of human subjects and compliance with privacy rules. Major sources of funding are the Medtronic Foundation, the CRC-NIH grant and a grant to the Health Disparities Center. Partnerships with ABC, NMA, GSMA, AMA, SHC and Grady Hospital strengthen the resources of CPN.

Disparities in Health Care affecting the underrepresented minority communities exist. By conducing research in the real world of the community practice, the MSM CPN consortium can help bridge some of this health disparity gap.