Clinical and Outcomes Research

The mission of Clinical and Outcomes Research (COR), a division of Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, is the improvement of human health through action-oriented scientific communications and the strategic application of database and analytic technologies.

COR maintains expertise in respiratory and related diseases within cardiovascular, oncology, infectious disease, neurology, hematology, endocrinology, and psychiatry.

Expertise includes strategic development in respiratory product planning to the pharmaceutical industry, as well as conducting health outcomes and epidemiology studies using retrospective and prospective designs in collaboration with pharmaceutical and government agencies.

COR Experience and Collaborators

COR scientists have significant experience in pharmacoeconomics and pharmacoepidemiology research and training in the fields of epidemiology, health economics, health services research, statistics, medicine, and medical sociology.

COR collaborators include: Lovelace Scientific Resources, Lovelace Clinic Foundation, VA Healthcare System-Albuquerque, Kaiser Permanente, Aurora Healthcare, Premier, University of Maryland, University of New Mexico, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Pharmacy and Public Health, Harvard-Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Pulmonary and Oncology), as well as Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute’s multidisciplinary scientists who investigate basic genetic, cellular, and systems biology with animal models.

COR is located on the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, North Carolina along with Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina State University, and North Carolina A&T University.

Customers can anticipate each project to be led by experienced scientists who will ensure accurate and timely results reflecting real-world care and utilization that will add value to product strategy and reimbursement.

Proprietary LRRI Databases

Lovelace Patient Database: Medical, pharmacy and lab data from the Lovelace Health Plan enrollees from 1988 to 2006. Other data sources that COR utilize are as follows: administrative databases, surveys, registries, electronic medical records, clinical trial databases and observational cohorts.

• The LPD contains 15 years of comprehensive, longitudinal healthcare data from a 240,000-member managed care organization in New Mexico (Lovelace Health Systems/Lovelace Health Plan - a staff and network model HMO)
• Data can be linked to patient charts
• Participation in the HMO Research Network

Lovelace Smoker’s Cohort: Longitudinal cohort of smoking individuals with annual follow-up of healthcare and pharmacy utilization, lab and genetic data, and health status data collection.

Lovelace PRO Database: Registry of 20,000 consented study participants, available for additional studies.

Research Team

Christopher Blanchette, PhD, Associate Scientist and Director: is a pharmacoepidemiologist with expertise in pharmaceutical outcomes research with large administrative databases and in the design and conduct of prospective observational and clinical trials.

Meaghan St. Charles, PhD, Associate Scientist: is a pharmacoepidemiologist with expertise in pharmaceutical outcomes research, survey methodology and primary data collection.

Hans Petersen, MS, Senior Statistician: is a health services researcher with expertise in the manipulation of large Open Source relational databases and the building of complex Linux/Unix-based data reduction and analysis software system solutions.

Harris Silver, MD, Associate Scientist: is an epidemiologist, as well as a board-certified otolaryngologist and rhinologist, who has expertise in rhinology, allergic fungal diseases, COPD, asthma, and bronchiectasis.

Lauren Farmer, BS, Research Coordinator: is a research coordinator with training in the biological sciences and experience in coordinating technology firms.

Doug Mapel, MD, MPH, Consulting Scientist: is an epidemiologist, as well as a board-certified pulmonary and critical care specialist, with over 20 years of experience in respiratory disease epidemiology and health outcomes. Dr. Mapel also serves as the Chief Medical Officer for the Lovelace Clinic Foundation.

Floyd Frost, PhD, Scientist Emeritus: is an epidemiologist with expertise in influenza, COPD, cancer and waterborne diseases. Dr. Frost also serves as the research program director for Aurora Healthcare.

Selected Publications

Manuscripts

1. Delea TE, Hagiwara M, Dalal AA, Stanford RH, Blanchette CM. Healthcare Use and Costs in Patients with Chronic Bronchitis Initiating Maintenance Therapy with Fluticasone/Salmeterol versus Other Inhaled Maintenance Therapies. Current Medical Research and Opinion. In press
2. Blanchette CM, Simoni-Wastila L, Shaya FT, Orwig D, Noel J, Stuart B. Healthcare utilization in elderly cardiac patients with depression and the impact of antidepressant utilization. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. In press
3. Akazawa M, Halpern R, Riedel AA, Stanford RH, Dalal A, Blanchette CM. Economic burden prior to COPD diagnosis: a matched case-control study in the United States. Respiratory Medicine. In press
4. Akazawa M, Hayflinger CD, Stanford RH, Blanchette CM. Economic assessment of initial maintenance therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from a managed care perspective. American Journal of Managed Care. 2008;14(7):438-448.
5. Blanchette CM, Gutierrez B, Ory C, Chang E, Akazawa M. Economic burden in direct costs of concomitant chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma in a Medicare Advantage population. Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy. 2008;14(2):176-185.
6. Shaya FT, Du D, Okazawa M, Blanchette CM, Wang J, Mapel DW, Dalal A, Scharf SM. Burden of concomitant asthma and COPD in a Medicaid population. Chest. 2008;134:14-19.
7. Blanchette CM, Simoni-Wastila L, Zuckerman I, Stuart B. A secondary analysis of a duration response association between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use and the risk of acute myocardial infarction in the aging population. Annals of Epidemiology. 2008;18(4):316-321.
8. Strutton D, Gutierrez B, Blanchette CM. Characteristics of schizophrenia hospitalizations in the United States and impact of treatment patterns on length of stay. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. 2008;65(1):42-48.
9. Blanchette CM, Joshi AV, Szpalski M, Gunzburg R, Du Bois M, Donceel P, Saunders WB. Comparison between spinal surgery blood transfusion services costs and associated treatment practices in the United States and Belgium. Current Medical Research and Opinion. 2007;23(11):2793-2804.

Presentations

1. Blanchette CM, Kamble S, Gemmen E, Exuzides A, Ekuewe D, Gibbons C. Use of real world data: challenges in the analysis of patient registry data. International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR); Athens, Greece; November 9-11, 2008.
2. Dalal AA, Blanchette CM, Manavi K, Petersen H, St.Charles M. Cost-effectiveness of fluticasone propionate/salmeterol (250/50mcg) compared to salmeterol (50mcg) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: economic evaluation of a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, multicenter trial (study SCO40043). American College of Chest Physicians; Philadelphia, PA; October 21-24, 2008.
3. Blanchette CM, Simoni-Wastila L, Shaya FT, Orwig D, Noel J. Healthcare utilization associated with depression following thrombotic cardiovascular events in elderly Medicare beneficiaries. International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR); Toronto, Ontario; May 2-6, 2008.