July 19, 2006 – Physicians from the V.I. Medical Institute and the Charles Harwood Medical Complex were recently invited to Juan F. Luis Hospital to attend an informational session on a new health care program that hopes to reduce the incidence chronic renal, or kidney, failure in the community.
The National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) and Howard University in Washington, D.C., have joined forces to supply St. Croix with a special equipment to record and monitor a patient's weight, blood pressure and body mass index — a mathematical formula, using height and weight measurements, to help determine obesity.
With the patient's information and the help from professionals at Howard, the machines will serve as a gateway to helping patients self-manage their health.
The machine is known as a telehealth kiosk (key-osk), and St. Croix has been targeted as one of five project sites to launch this state-of-the-art technology.
Research has shown that African-Americans or persons of African descent (which is 75 percent of the V.I. population), tend to have an unusually high number of risk factors for high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes.
If uncared for, these health issues can result in end-stage renal disease and the need for kidney transplants.
As of February 2006, more than 64,000 people are waiting for kidney transplants on the national transplant waiting list. According to recent statistics, every 14 minutes a new name is added to the wait list, while the average wait for a transplant is five to 10 years.
"We are in search of ways to reduce the need for organ transplants in the minority community by moving from awareness to action to accountability," Patrice Miles, MOTTEP's national executive director, said.
Recognizing that the wait for a transplant is too long and the number of organ donors are limited, MOTTEP wants to start educating patients, specifically those with hypertension, so that they can avoid the list altogether.
This is how they plan to accomplish their goal:
Five kiosk machines apiece are to be placed in community-based locations in Richmond, Va.; Washington, D.C.; Detroit, Mich.; Chicago, Ill.; and St. Croix.
Miles and other organizers have set up the program to allow 300 hypertension patients to register and be randomly placed in two groups.
One group will be the Intervention Group, in which members will agree to make kiosk appointments twice a month. The other group, the Usual Care Group, will make appointments only three times between the time they enroll and the time the program's grant ends, on Aug. 31, 2007.
Participants will be issued a five-digit number that they will enter into the kiosk to submit their health information and then use that number to continue accessing their information each time they return to the machine. While logged on, the patient will be connected to a database in D.C. where cardiologists, nutritionists, exercise physiologists and nurse care managers wait to advise the patient.
These professionals will work with participants in an effort to provide them with the best opportunity to effectively change their health behaviors and self-manage their individual health care.
Those who are chosen for the program will also receive a user name and password so that they can access the MOTTEP Web site, which offers videos, links and a place to record personal data.
Both Miles and Territorial Program Coordinator Lillian Sullivan underscore that the kiosk is in no means a way of replacing the patient's primary care physician — instead researchers in Washington, D.C., hope to work with local doctors to ensure patients' progress.
The program in St. Croix is open only to African-American and Black Virgin Islanders, ages 18-65, who are currently receiving anti-hypertensive treatment.
By comparing the intervention and casual use groups, MOTTEP and Howard University staff will be able to see if the program is indeed beneficial in reducing blood pressure and the risk of kidney failure.
Sullivan encourages community members not to be discouraged by the fact that the program involves the use of the Internet, adding that trained staff members will assist participants to help with the machines.
One kiosk machine will be placed in each of the following St. Croix locations: JFL Hospital, Frederiksted Clinic, Central Seventh Day Adventist Church, Dr. Cora Christian's Office Building and the Richmond Methodist Education Center.
Anyone interested in registering to be a patient should contact Frederiksted Health Care Inc. at (340) 772-0260.
Individuals interested in becoming a facilitator should contact Sullivan at (340) 719-7892.
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