sanofi-aventis Awards Grant to DFWHC Foundation

The DFWHC Foundation received news Jan. 31, 2011 that it received a grant of $70,875 from sanofi-aventis. Pam Doughty, Ph.D. will be the lead investigator for the research grant. The grant’s purpose is to identify environmental factors contributing to diabetes readmissions. Once environmental factors are determined, information will be turned over to the Community Health Collaborative to address the results from a “grass roots” level.

New software will be used to map patients with diabetes who have been readmitted and combined with other maps displaying business locations, structural amenities and school locations. The maps will provide insight into possible environmental factors affecting diabetes patients.

Currently, 8.6% of the North Texas population has been diagnosed with diabetes, with men and women equally represented. There are a significantly greater number of African American residents with the disease than in other ethnic or racial groups between the ages of 45-64 years. How much do environmental factors affect African American people with diabetes? Is it due to the location of clinics or pharmacies to their homes? Is it due to other environmental factors? These are just some of the questions to be addressed with this research project.

With this new software, the DFWHC Foundation will be looking for other similar issues to research. Please feel free to email us with any ideas on future collaboration. These are exciting times at the Foundation!

Pam Doughty, Ph.D.
research@dfwhcfoundation.org