For immediate release – The Foundation to Advance Vascular Cures is excited to announce the launch of a new project aimed at bringing greater health equity and improved research outcomes to Chinese-speaking populations in California. 

In furtherance of our work to promote diverse patient engagement in research, we are excited to announce a new project focused on Chinese-speaking vascular patient populations and supported by a funding award through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award Program, an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). We are partnering with the University of Southern California, Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare, and several organizations that serve Chinese-speaking patients living with vascular conditions. This work will be led by patient partner and Foundation to Advance Vascular Cures board member Steve Hamburger, whose enthusiasm and advocacy for the inclusion of Chinese-American patient partners in vascular research and engagement was a significant driver for this initiative, and by Isabel Bjork, the Foundation’s CEO, Dr. Shih of USC and Dr. Emily Rosario of Casa Colina.

The main purpose of this project is to increase the capacity of Chinese-speaking vascular patients to advocate for, and ultimately engage in comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER). Through increased engagement in such research, these patients will have the opportunity to bring their perspectives and preferences to high-yield, impactful research, which will ultimately better align outcomes with the needs of this unique population. 

Steve and the project team will be working with researchers, providers, translators, and advocates to perform outreach, education, and empowerment over the course of this two-year project. The deliverables include the development of multilingual educational products, Chinese language empowerment sessions held both virtually and in-person, and the development of tools and resources to help other organizations engage patients in CER. 

Importantly, as other underrepresented populations share characteristics with Chinese-speaking vascular patients, these tools and resources have the potential to be scaled to improve health equity and research outcomes in many other communities. This is a key step towards better vascular health for all. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more, please reach out to patients@vascularcures.org. 

You can read about this project on our official PCORI project page, here: https://www.pcori.org/research-results/2023/patient-centered-cer-capacity-building-among-chinese-speaking-vascular-patient-populations 

This project was funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award (EACB-32761). The views presented in this project are solely the responsibility of the Foundation to Advance Vascular Cures and do not necessarily represent the views of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute® (PCORI®), its Board of Governors or Methodology Committee.