Research Focus Areas

Our research focus areas

Ohio State University's General Internal Medicine's Research program fosters specialized expertise across topics spanning the breadth of primary care.

Autism

The Center for Autism Services and Transition (CAST) is engaged in research exploring the healthcare experience of autistic patients as they transfer from pediatric to adult healthcare. We are also developing and studying improved methods of educating healthcare professionals in the unique needs of autistic adults in healthcare settings.

Cancer screening

Cancer screening involves the systematic testing of individuals who may not have symptoms of cancer but are at risk for a particular cancer, aiming to detect the disease at an early and more treatable stage. Examples of cancer screening include mammograms and colonoscopies.

Clinical pharmacy services and outcomes

The Clinical Pharmacists at OSUGIM engage in research exploring their role in primary care, implementation and expansion of pharmacy collaborative practice agreement services, and the impact of pharmacist-provided care on patient outcomes. Through these studies, we aim to contribute valuable insights into optimizing patient outcomes, enhancing collaborative healthcare practices, and advancing the integration of pharmacists in primary care settings.
  • Cory Coffey
  • Suzanne Higginbotham
  • Jen Sabatino
  • Lindsey Lee

COVID-19 and long COVID

Post-acute syndrome of COVID-19 (PASC), often termed "Long COVID," is a chronic condition that has arisen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It typically begins within 3 months of acute COVID19 infection and manifests with a variety of symptoms, including cognitive disturbance. The Division of General Internal Medicine operates a Long COVID clinic, which provides clinical care for affected patients and is a center for clinical research.

Dementia/ Frailty

Geriatric physicians specialize in the treatment and prevention of diseases and disabilities uniquely affecting older adults. Health services research and program development both serve as the foundation expertise in chronic disease epidemiology, clinical case adjudication, as well as survey and Medicare claims-based data analysis to investigate dementia, frailty and advanced care practices.

Digital scholarship

Digital scholarship in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Ohio State University involves engaging with various forms of online media such as blogs, videos, social media, and podcasts. This area, often situated outside the traditional academic framework, offers an avenue for our faculty to contribute to and participate in modern educational methods. Through digital scholarship, our educators and learners engage in a meaningful dialogue, enhancing the learning experience. The division's involvement in this field demonstrates our commitment to exploring diverse educational platforms and adapting to the evolving landscape of medical education.

Dissemination and implementation science

The Dissemination and Implementation Research Program at The Ohio State University uses evidence-based practices to help fill the gap between research translation and implementation into clinical settings.

Evidence based practice

OSU GIM researchers collaborate with multiple institutions to synthesize existing research for national clinical guidelines.

Language concordant care

The program aims to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) by connecting them with physicians who speak their language. Since its inception, we have observed a significant increase in LEP patient enrollment. To support quality improvement and future research, we have developed a dashboard to track key quality and outcome metrics in LEP patient populations.

  • Taru Saigal

Maternal child health

Maternal Child Health focuses on the well-being of both mothers/birthing parents and children, encompassing a range of healthcare services and interventions to ensure healthy pregnancies, safe childbirth, and optimal early childhood development.

Narrative medicine

Narrative medicine is utilizing the study of narrative and the principles of story telling to have a better understanding of patients and providers as persons with stories (instead of persons with diseases and persons without diseases meant to "fix" those with diseases) to create connection and meaning in medicine.

Patient centered outcomes

PCOR emphasizes research that directly involves patients in the design, conduct, and dissemination of research. The goal is to generate evidence that is relevant and useful to patients, caregivers, clinicians, and policy makers to inform medical decision making.

Patient engagement

Patient engagement involves actively working with patients as a part of the healthcare and research journey, fostering a collaborative relationship between patients and providers, and researchers.

Quality improvement

Ohio State GIM works to provide high quality of care to our patients both adult and pediatric through continuous quality improvement. We evaluate our current performance and workflows for metrics such as cancer screening, diabetes control, hypertension control just to name a few and create innovative process changes to help enhance and improve outcomes.

Remote monitoring/ Telemedicine

Our primary care pharmacists and physicians have been pioneers in remote monitoring and management of chronic diseases. In our ongoing studies of remote monitoring implementation, we achieve a natural synergy between research and clinical operations.

Sickle cell disease

Using national and multicenter data to understand health disparities for people with sickle cell disease. We are learning directly from people with sickle cell disease about their experience with important health topics, such as reproductive health.

Substance use disorder

The Division of General Internal Medicine is committed to the longitudinal care of people with substance use disorders. Our current projects focus on studying the integration of SUD treatment within primary care, understanding and optimizing opioid treatment agreements (OTAs), promoting harm reduction efforts such as use of fentanyl test strips, and screening for substance use disorders within primary care. Our faculty have been supported by NIDA, AHRQ and NIH Healing Community Study, among other agencies, to conduct research within this space.

Transgender care

We offer gender affirming and primary care services at OSU's Gender-Affirming Primary Care Clinic. Actively contributing to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. Transgender health research includes clinical research on outcome disparities, health equity, and healthcare policy research.
  • Taru Saigal
  • Francis Kane