Albert Einstein College of Medicine Announced As The New Coordinating Center For National Research Network
BRONX, N.Y., Jan. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bravewell Collaborative today announced that Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University will lead the Bravewell Integrative Medicine Research Network (BraveNet), a practice-based consortium of 14 integrative medicine centers in the United States. As the coordinating center for BraveNet, Einstein will manage the network's Patients Receiving Integrative Medicine Interventions Effectiveness Registry (PRIMIER), the first patient registry for integrative medicine, which combines complementary/alternative and conventional medical practices.
"BraveNet has helped unite the medical community and establish a strong future for evidence-based research in integrative health care," said Christy Mack, president of The Bravewell Collaborative. "Einstein has a long-standing commitment to integrative medicine and is well-situated to ensure the continued success of PRIMIER."
Building the Network
The Bravewell Collaborative established BraveNet in 2007 as the nation's first practice-based research network for integrative medicine to study the benefits of an integrative approach to health care. As part of this mission, BraveNet created PRIMIER, a data registry project intended to uniformly collect patient-reported outcomes, provider input and extracted electronic health record data into a large dataset. This dataset can be used for quality improvement, evidence-based research and determination of best practices.
M. Diane McKee, M.D., M.S., co-director of research and attending physician in the department of family and social medicine at Einstein and Montefiore Medical Center, noted the value of registry databases such as PRIMIER: "Registries are unique in that they allow researchers to examine patient subsets to precisely determine how individual patients benefit from each intervention. The process is cost-effective and allows researchers to gather evidence on a much larger scale than in a typical clinical trial."
The PRIMIER registry provides foundational knowledge on how integrative medicine is being used in real-world settings. This knowledge will ultimately inform decision-making in clinical settings and serve as the basis for future clinical trials. The hope is that PRIMIER will expand over time, including more public as well as private integrative medicine centers, to create a national registry that will help improve the health and well-being of patients and provide a framework for discovering best practices in integrative medicine.
"Over the past 12 years, The Bravewell Collaborative has made an unparalleled commitment to furthering the field of integrative medicine," said Benjamin Kligler, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of clinical family and social medicine at Einstein and chair of the BraveNet executive committee. "I'm excited for the opportunity to continue this work and co-lead such an important program. The network and its research endeavors will continue to help shape the future of health care."
About the Bravewell Collaborative
Formed in 2002, The Bravewell Collaborative is a community of philanthropists in the United States dedicated to bringing about optimal health and healing for individuals and society. An operating foundation, Bravewell develops and manages strategic initiatives that support integrative approaches to health care. For more information about The Bravewell Collaborative, please visit www.bravewell.org.
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SOURCE The Bravewell Collaborative