CHEST Foundation Donor Spotlight December 2018 | Page 8

NIH FUNDS PROJECT OF CHEST
FOUNDATION GRANT WINNER
DREW HARRIS
“A middle-aged textile worker who entered
Charlottesville as a Syrian refugee several
years ago had been unable to work much in
Charlottesville due to work-related asthma.
She was denied disability due to insufficient
work time. Without a network of friends or
While in San Antonio for CHEST 2018,
CHEST Foundation caught up with the
recipient of our 2017 CHEST Foundation
Research Grant in Asthma, Drew Harris,
MD, to learn about the impact winning
a CHEST Foundation Research grant
had on his community and career. Dr.
Harris’ project created a medical-legal
partnership to target many of the
social-determinants of asthma and help
address them beyond the typical scope
a provider can offer in a traditional visit.
“Currently, we have a full-time lawyer, two social workers, and people in Public
Health Sciences program as well as law students at The University of Virginia
(UVA) all working together to address the needs of the community.” Harris stated.
“Public health students conduct asthma screenings in any of the four clinics we
partner with within the UVA system and bring their findings to the larger group.
From there, we figure out how to best intervene for these people and connect
them with our lawyer if there are housing or workplace discrimination concerns.”
Dr. Harris recently received NIH Funding for his approach and has since
expanded this medical-legal partnership at the University of Virginia. “The grant
I received last year from the CHEST Foundation funded a pilot version of my
project that I then was able to share with a larger audience and ultimately
secure federal funding for,” Dr. Harris shared.
family to turn to, this family was struggling
in poverty with housing and food insecurity.
By connecting with this CHEST Founda-
tion-supported program, this patient received
needed advocacy and support of doctors,
social workers, and legal aid attorneys. She
is now supported in an application for a
monthly subsidy to help her immediate social
needs while we work towards a more perma-
nent solution. Our program has also helped
patients with health-harming social needs,
including lack of access to care (by helping
patients apply for and enroll in Medicaid,
for example), housing issues (such as mold
and unresponsive landlords), and intimate
partner violence. Working together as a team,
we are able to provide advocacy to improve
the health and well-being of our vulnerable
community members.
This program addresses issues that are im-
portant to my community. Without the hard
“The NIH grant was awarded through the lens of implementation science. We
know what works in asthma medication and environmental and social factors
that help improve patients’ lives. But we do a poor job on actually DOING it.
Our project addresses barriers to fixing these social needs and brings a team
together to help fix these other problems that are hard for just a medical
provider to address.” work and dedication of my colleagues, the
Dr. Harris continued, “Social needs and determinants of health are starting to
receive more attention in pulmonary medicine, so we are really hitting the
ground at the right time. Everyone understands that these are important
determinants of health, but they lack the tools to help improve patients’ lives.
We are creating those.” Thank you to the CHEST Foundation and
Your donations support clinical research projects like this grant for Dr.
Harris. Please consider making a holiday donation to support next year’s
grants.
DE C E MBER 2018
community at large, and all those committed
to confronting these problems, many fami-
lies would not get what they need to thrive. I
am proud and feel lucky to dedicate my time
to support my patients and my community.
all those who support it to ensure that ALL
patients receive the care they deserve.”
—Drew Harris, MD