MAY 23, 2005 | The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Nursing put scissors to ribbon recently to dedicate the opening of its Tailored Biobehavioral Interventions Research Center (T-BIRC), launching a new perspective in patient care.

UAMS received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the center, which will study individualized patient care based on the patient’s unique characteristics. The goal is to create data to help nurses and other health care providers develop recovery plans best suited to individual patients and ultimately shorten recovery time and/or increase the quality of life for the patient.

“What may be good for one patient may be harmful for another. Standardized care isn’t always appropriate care,” said the center’s director, Kathy Richards, Ph.D., R.N., a professor in the UAMS College of Nursing. Richards is also a research health scientist for the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.

Richards said individualized care is an important issue but there has been little research in the area. By researching how people of different ages, genders, races and overall health respond to types of care, it is possible to cater that care to provide the best recovery.

The T-BIRC will provide education; consultation and mentoring for investigators; facilitate the development, conduct and dissemination of findings from pilot studies; and help develop proposals for additional funding through the Pilot Studies and the Administrative Cores.

Cornelia Beck, Ph.D., RN, professor in the UAMS College of Medicine is director of the Pilot Studies Core and Jean McSweeney, Ph.D., RN, professor in the UAMS College of Nursing, is co-director. Linda Hodges, Ed.D., R.N., professor and dean of the UAMS College of Nursing, is co-director of the Administrative Core. The pilot studies for the first year of the grant have been selected, but Richards said they will be looking at proposals for future years.

The pilot studies approved for the first year of the grant are:

• Constructing an Explanatory Model of Child Sexual Abuse. Investigator Louanne Lawson, Ph.D., R.N., assistant professor in the UAMS College of Nursing, will use data from a random selection of child sexual abusers to determine similarities and the possibility of preventing future incidents of abuse.

• Assessing Osteoarthritic Pain in Elders with Dementia. Investigator Paofeng Tsai, Ph.D., R.N., assistant professor in the College of Nursing, will look into using an observational instrument to determine the amount of pain from arthritis in the knee and hip of elderly people in two study groups, one with dementia and one without, to determine if they can use the observational measures to assess pain in patients with dementia.

• Outcomes of Individualized Computer Activities for Women with Osteoarthritis. Investigator Sunghee Tak, Ph.D., R.N. will examine if individualized recreational activity with a computer for an hour a day will help increase activity, relieve stress and improve nighttime sleep in arthritic women with depression. The study will take place with low-income women living in high-rise apartment units.

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