Dr. Cindy Munro will be among the first researchers in the United States to study an audio-recording system to reduce delirium in ICU patients.

Tampa, FL (Dec. 19, 2016) – The National Institutes of Nursing Research (NINR) has awarded more than $1.9 million to the University of South Florida College of Nursing to study an audio-recording reorientation intervention to prevent delirium in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Cindy Munro, PhD, professor and associate dean of research and innovation at USF College of Nursing, will lead a team of USF Health researchers to study whether the intervention, called Family Automated Voice Reorientation (FAVoR), can help minimize delirium among patients receiving treatment in ICUs.

FAVoR uses scripted audio messages from the patient’s family, and is played to the patient in the ICU every hour during daytime. The audio recording helps inform the patient about the ICU environment in general terms –in a familiar voice. The recording calls the patients by name and explains what’s happening — telling them, “you’re not able to talk, because you are in a breathing tube,” “you’re in the hospital,” and “we will visit you soon.” 

Cindy Munro, PhD

Dr. Munro and her team will study 178 critically ill and mechanically ventilated adult patients hospitalized at Tampa General Hospital. The researchers will also follow the patients’ progress for six months after they leave the hospital.

“People with delirium have a lot more trouble with recovery,” Dr. Munro said. “Their memory and their long-term quality of life is affected even after they’re discharged from the hospital. So, by doing this alteration to the environment, we’re hoping to help reduce delirium in the ICU, and improve patients’ lives when they go home.”

According to the ICU Delirium and Cognitive Impairment Study Group, 50 percent of critically ill and 80 percent of mechanically ventilated adult patients suffer from delirium. Delirium is a serious disorder that affects one’s mental abilities, environment awareness and thinking, and causes behavioral changes and emotional disturbances.

During this four-year study, Dr. Munro will work with USF College of Nursing’s Ming Ji, PhD, professor, and Zhan Liang, MSN, assistant professor. She will also collaborate with two physicians from USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine: Karel Calero, MD, assistant professor, and W. Mcdowell Anderson, MD, professor and director of Sleep Medicine.  

“We’re happy to be the one of the first institutions in the nation to study delirium in the ICU,” said Donna Petersen, ScD, CPH, interim dean of the USF College of Nursing, senior associate vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF College of Public Health. “This research will help tackle an untapped health care issue such as delirium as well as help advance our college research mission.”      

The study is supported by NINR, part of National Institute of Health (NIH). NINR helps promote and improve the health of individuals, families and communities. NINR is part of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers that support and conduct clinical and basic science research on health and illness. For more information about NIH and NINR visit www.ninr.nih.gov.

-USF Health-

USF Health’s mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Biomedical Sciences Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs, and the USF Physicians Group. USF Health is an integral part of the University of South Florida, a high-impact, global research university dedicated to student success. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu

As the country continues to hear reports about the Ebola virus, local media turn to USF Health — the region’s only academic medical center – for expert comment. Several USF Health faculty and researchers stepped up and provided local reporters with on-camera interviews and in-print quotes, and on-campus lectures. Check out some of them:

Cindy Munro, RN, PhD, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation for the College of Nursing

ABC Action News

NBC-News Channel 8

Tampa Bay Times

Donna J. Petersen, ScD, MHS, CPH, Professor and Dean of the USF College of Public Health

Tampa Bay Times

Thomas Unnasch, PhD, Distinguished USF Health Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health in the USF College of Public Health

At USF Health 

ABC Action News 

Channel 10 News 

ABC Action News

Channel 10 News

Ana Paula Velez. MD, Associate Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and Vice Chief of Infectious Diseases Section at Moffitt Cancer Center

Mira TV (Spanish), part 1 and part 2

Rita F. D’Aoust,PhD, ACNP, Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Interprofessional Initiatives for the USF College of Nursing

Fox 13

Jay Wolfson, DrPH, JD, Distinguished Service Professor of Public Health, Medicine and Pharmacy and Associate Vice-President Health Law, Policy and Safety

ABC Action News

The NIA-funded study focuses on those who care for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease at home

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Tampa, FL (July 9, 2013) – The University of South Florida College of Nursing is conducting research to improve sleep in those caring for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, with the aim of determining if better sleep affects heart health. The $1.9-million, four-year study funded by National Institute on Aging (NIA), “Improving Dementia Caregiver Sleep and the Effect on Heart Disease Biomarkers,” is led by USF College of Nursing Professor and Endowed Chair Meredeth Rowe, RN, PhD, FGSA, FAAN.

Fifteen million Americans provided an estimated 17.5 billion hours of unpaid care to people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in 2012, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Recent studies indicate that caregivers, unpaid family members or friends who assist people with Alzheimer’s with daily activities, may experience sleep loss from the constant demands of caregiving.

The College of Nursing study tests the relationship between caregiver sleep and heart disease to help understand what negatively affects caregiver health.

USF College of Nursing’s Dr. Meredeth Rowe places one of the monitoring device’s sensors beneath the mattress. The sensor detects movement and sounds an alarm to alert the caregiver if the person with Alzheimer’s disease starts to get out of bed.

“Caregiving and lack of sleep each separately increase the risk of heart disease,” Dr. Rowe said. “We want to discover whether improving sleep in caregivers lowers that risk.”

According to the 2006 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report “Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem,” the cumulative effects of sleep loss and sleep disorders have been associated with a wide range of adverse health consequences including increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke.

“The College of Nursing at the University of South Florida is transforming lives through research to improve the health of patients and their caregivers,” said Dianne Morrison-Beedy, PhD, RN, WHNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN, senior associate vice president of USF Health and dean of the College of Nursing. “We’re making life better by transforming the health care of the family members who provide essential home care for persons with dementia. These caregivers fill an often unrecognized role in the healthcare system.”

The primary focus of Dr. Rowe’s research is finding an effective and easy-to-use treatment that can improve sleep in Alzheimer’s caregivers to increase their overall health and reduce the nursing home placement of people with dementia.

“When I was working on ways to provide caregivers better quality of sleep, I looked for technologies that might help and there were none,” Dr. Rowe said. “I realized that unless I invented a system that allowed them to sleep well, I was never going to have an impact on improving their sleep.”

Dr. Rowe explains to a caregiver how the integrated nighttime monitoring system tracks the bed occupancy and movement patterns around the house of a loved one with dementia. The goal is to allow the caregiver to rest easier through the night while maintaining the safety of the person with dementia.

A number of sensors can be placed around the house, including doorways, to analyze movement patterns and provide customized, specific alerts.

CareAlert, a new night monitoring system designed by Dr. Rowe and Caregiver Watch, LLC, provides reliable alerts to caregivers whenever a person with dementia leaves the bed and wanders through the house. The system helps the caregiver rest easier through the night, and improves the overall safety of the person with dementia. The findings of a study testing the effectiveness of CareAlert were published by Dr. Rowe and colleagues in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, in 2009. The researchers reported that use of CareAlert reduced nighttime injuries and unattended home exits by 85 percent over a period of 12 months.

“Dr. Rowe’s research seeks not only to improve caregiver sleep, but also to better understand the relationships between sleep and changes in heart health,” said Cindy L. Munro, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN, professor and associate dean for research and innovation at the USF College of Nursing.

In the latest research, Dr. Rowe is evaluating whether a combined intervention using  CareAlert and cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia improves sleep in individuals who care for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s who wake up at night. The study, conducted in the USF College of Nursing Caregiving Laboratory, will include as many as 100 participants. All will receive the CareAlert device and one of two sleep therapies assigned at random.

Dr. Rowe, a national expert in caregiver-related issues, worked with a company to design an evidence-based monitoring system with technology responsive to caregiver needs.

Rita F. D’Aoust, PhD, ACNP, ANP-BC, CNE, FAANP, FNAP, associate professor and associate dean of academic affairs and interprofessional initiatives at the USF College of Nursing, and Maureen E. Groer, RN, PhD, FAAN, Gordon Keller professor, are study co-investigators. Dr. D’Aoust studies the associations between vigilance and sympathetic nervous system activity, and Dr. Groer leads the design and analysis of biologic markers for heart disease. Others contributing to this research project include Brandi Mallek, research project manager; Taujihana Brown, research assistant; Glenna Brewster, predoctoral fellow; Milora Morley, undergraduate public health honors student.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency and the leading supporter of biomedical research in the world. NIA, one of the 27 institutes and centers at NIH, helps understand the nature of aging and supports the health and well-being of older adults. Dr. Rowe has received many NIH grants throughout her research career to study people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and their caregivers. The USF College of Nursing ranks first in Florida and 24th in the nation in NIH funding, for both public and private schools of nursing.

Dr. Maureen Groer, a co-investigator for the caregiver sleep and heart disease risk study, watches as research lab technician Nicole Williams drops processed blood into a machine that will identify biomarkers of heart disease.

Dr. Rowe is currently enrolling participants for this study. For more information, contact USF College of Nursing Research Project Manager Brandi Mallek, at (813) 974-1827 or bmallek@health.usf.edu.

USF Health-

USF Health’s mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences; and the USF Physician’s Group. The University of South Florida is a global research university ranked 50^th in the nation by the National Science Foundation for both federal and total research expenditures among all U.S. universities. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu.

Media contact:
Ashlea Bailey, College of Nursing Communications 
(813)396-9642 or  ahudak@health.usf.edu

All photos with Dr. Rowe taken at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute’s Center for Memory C.A.R.E  by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications
Video by Andy Faza, USF College of Nursing Communications & Marketing

Tampa, FL (May 23, 2013) – The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has approved a $2.1-million award to the University of South Florida College of Nursing to study “Patient Outcomes of a Self-care Management Approach to Cancer Symptoms: A Clinical Trial.” USF Distinguished Professor and Thompson Professor of Oncology Nursing Susan C. McMillan, PhD, ARNP, FAAN, will lead the research project.

The USF College of Nursing project will test a brief intervention, known as COPE, which aims to teach cancer patients management skills for improving symptoms they identify as the highest priority.

“Improving cancer patients’ ability to self-manage difficult symptoms may diminish patient suffering, improve quality of life, and decrease emergency room visits and associated healthcare costs,” Dr. McMillan said. “We hope that this intervention will be as successful for patient self-care as it has been when implemented with caregivers of hospice patients with cancer.”

The USF College of Nursing study is one of 51 new awards by PCORI, totaling $88.6-million over three years, to fund patient-centered comparative clinical research effectiveness projects.  It is part of a portfolio of projects that address PCORI’s national research priorities and will provide patients with information to help them make better informed decisions about their care.

The only other new PCORI award in Florida went to the college’s clinical collaboration partner Moffitt Cancer Center to study a navigator-guided psychoeducational intervention for prostate cancer patients and caregivers.  Richard Roetzheim, MD, professor of family medicine at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, is one of the investigators for the Moffitt study.

Susan McMillan, PhD, is lead investigator for the USF Collge of Nursing’s newly awarded PCORI project.

The randomized clinical trial led by Dr. McMillan will evaluate the effectiveness of COPE in alleviating moderate to high-intensity cancer symptoms causing distress, frequency or interference with patients’ lives. To conduct the study, the researchers will recruit 300 cancer center outpatients with breast, colorectal, lung and prostate cancers

 “At the University of South Florida, the College of Nursing is conducting groundbreaking research to improve the health of patients, families and our community,” said Dianne Morrison-Beedy, PhD, RN, WHNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN, senior associate vice president of USF Health, and dean of the College of Nursing. “At Nursing we are transforming healthcare and transforming lives – working with our healthcare partners locally, regionally and nationally to make life better.”

All the PCORI projects were selected through a highly competitive review process in which scientists, patients, caregivers, and other stakeholders helped to evaluate more than 400 applications for funding. Proposals were evaluated on the basis of scientific merit, how well they engage patients and other stakeholders, their methodological rigor, and how well they fit within PCORI’s national research priorities.

 “This project reflects PCORI’s commitment to support patient-centered comparative effectiveness research, a new approach to health research that emphasizes the inclusion of patients and caregivers at all stages of the study process,” said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH. “The research will provide patients and those who care for them better information about the healthcare decisions they face.”

“The vision of PCORI — that “patients and the public have the information they need to make decisions that reflect their desired health outcomes” — is highly aligned with the College of Nursing, where we focus on research that improves health,” said Cindy L. Munro, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN, USF College of Nursing professor and associate dean for research and innovation at the USF College of Public Health. “We are very proud that Dr. McMillan’s research has been selected for funding by PCORI.  Her work will not only benefit patients, but also serves as a model for research excellence in the College and beyond.”

Through the Center for Living with Chronic Illness, the USF College of Nursing focuses the research expertise of its nurse scientists, faculty and students as they collaborate on unique solutions to the nation’s leading health care problems, such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

The latest awards were part of PCORI’s second cycle of primary research funding. All were approved pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract.  This new round of funding follows PCORI’s initial approval of $40.7 million in support for 25 projects under the institute’s national research priorities

For more information about PCORI’s funding announcements, visit www.pcori.org/funding-opportunities.

-USF Health-

USF Health’s mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences; and the USF Physician’s Group. The University of South Florida is a global research university ranked 50^th in the nation by the National Science Foundation for both federal and total research expenditures among all U.S. universities. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu.

 -About PCORI-

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions. PCORI is committed to continuously seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work. More information is available at www.pcori.org.

Media contact:
Ashlea Bailey, USF College of Nursing Communications
(813) 396-9642, or ahudak@health.usf.edu