Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Maithili Deshpande, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacy practice in the School of Pharmacy, is working with SIU School of Medicine (SOM) and University of Illinois-Springfield (UIS) researchers studying Sangamon County neighborhoods to identify those with the highest levels of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Sangamon County is reported to have among the highest number of emergency room visits in Illinois related to those specific breathing issues. The project is funded by the Caryl Towsley Moy PhD Endowed Fund for Collaborative Research. The project focuses on data involving more than 3,000 asthma and COPD patient visits in 2016 in Sangamon Country emergency rooms. Asthma and COPD cases are rising in the U.S. and internationally.
“We want to determine which factors were responsible for these emergency department (ED) visits in Sangamon County,” Deshpande said. “ED visits may be a product of both ‘who you are’ – individual biology – as well as ‘where you are’ – location. Therefore, our study aims to identify how patient and neighborhood characteristics, such as air quality, crime rates, poverty, demographic mix and access to care affect asthma and COPD ED visits in Sangamon County.”
Deshpande leads the project along with Dr. Wiley Jenkins, an epidemiologist in the Office of Population Science and Policy at the SIU SOM, Amanda Fogelman, a senior research development coordinator at the SOM, and Dr. Egbe Egiebor, a toxicologist and UIS assistant professor of public health.
The research team will confidentially analyze patients’ home location, demographic and environmental information, and their neighborhoods. Healthcare providers could use the results to target neighborhoods for educational efforts and give doctors more strategies for reducing health complications from asthma and COPD. They hope to have preliminary findings by March.
Within the SOP, Deshpande has a focus on outcomes research. Her practice site is the SIU SOM Center for Clinical Research.
Photo: Maithili Deshpande, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacy practice in the SIUE School of Pharmacy.